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ACTS 



POST OFFICE DEF'T. 

DEC 7 1891 
LIBRARY, 



Anti- Slavery Apostles. 



PARKER PILLSBURY. 



"And they went Everywhere Preaching the 
Word." — Acts, viii : 4. 



CONCORD, N. H. 

1883 



, -y > s 4. t 






1823 



Clague, VVk.oman, Schlicht, & Co., 

tJrintrrB, 

ROCHESTER, N. ^ . 



WITHDRAW, i 

MAY y 1919 

PU ART 

WASHJjN 3r*G NT, - D. C. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Some books, judged by their titles, are more remark- 
able for what they do not contain, than for what they 
do. This work is only Acts, not the Acts of the Anti- 
Slavery Apostles. It is only a small portion of a very 
small part of those apostles. 

There were many in the great west, as well as not a 
few in the east, whose labors, sacrifices and sufferings 
entitle them to volumes of well-written biography, 
who can scarcely be mentioned here, even by name. 

'At this time of my life of nearly three score and 
fourteen years, more than forty of which have been 
spent in the field of moral, peaceful and religious agi- 
tation for the rights of humanity, it seemed presump- 
tion in me to attempt a labor of even this magnitude. 
And it was only earnest, continued importunity on the 
part of my very few surviving associates in the con- 
flict, and their friends, that finally determined my 
course. Truth only has been sought. Not the whole 
truth ; for that were impossible. But strict truth and 
exact justice, to the full extent of my time and space. 

The present generation knows little of the terrible 
mysteries and meanings of slavery or anti-slavery ; 
the outrages and horrors of the former, or the desper- 
ate and deadly encounters with tfie monster by the 
latter, long before the cannonade of Fort Sumpter, or 
the dreadful war chorus of the subsequent rebellion. 
And all which is now attempted is some disclosure of 
those mysteries. 

By anti-slavery apostles are meant those only whose 
work was in the lecturing field ; who literally " went 
everywhere preaching the word ; " often as with their 



INTRODUCTION. 



lives in their hands. Nor will only few of them, how- 
ever worthy and deserving, be mentioned even by 
name. This work will be rather pictures and sketches 
than history. It will hardly enter more than two 
states, New Hampshire and Massachusetts ; never go 
beyond New England. But in New England every 
type and phase of anti-slavery experience, doing, 
suffering and triumphing was represented to the 
fullest possible extent. What was true there was true 
everywhere in the country. And the truth on slavery 
and anti-slavery can be presented on so small space, 
and in time equally limited, as well as if the whole 
country were included, and all the thirty years of the 
moral and peaceful, and so, truly religious, agitation 
of the mighty problem were covered and all the heroes 
and martyrs named. The whole, as originally in- 
tended, would have comprised acts and experiences 
of some of those heroes, with brief personal sketches 
of them, together with short biographical notices of 
William Lloyd Garrison, of The Liberator, and Na- 
thaniel Peabody Rogers, of the Herald of Freedom. 

But, as the work of writing went on, articles began 
to appear from our old opponents or their children, 
not only declaring that they or their fathers abolished 
the evil, but that it could have been sooner and more 
easily done, "had Garrison and his small, but motley 
following " been out of their way ! So some chapters 
of acts of the //-^-slavery apostles, became necessary* 
at cost of both extending the volume, and also ex- 
cluding some worthy names and noble deeds that had 
earned good right to grace these pages. These mis- 
representations came mainly from the clergy, as did 
most of our bitterest opposition while prosecuting our 
anti-slavery labors, as will be hereafter shown beyond 
all question or contradiction. 



INTRODUCTION. V. 

So now the order of the book will be : A chapter 
on Mr. Garrison ; a second, on Mr. Rogers ; a third 
on slavery — as it was ; then one on anti-slavery, what 
it was not, and what it was ; and then follow the acts 
of the anti-slavery apostles ; with acts of the pro-sla- 
very apostles subjoined ; the latter generally telling 
their own story in their own words, works and ways, 
no cross-questioning ever entering into their truly 
judgment-day assizes, as will be made fully to appear 
to a surrounding world. And it scarcely need be 
added that the abundant testimony adduced, is only a 
small part of what the churches and their ministers 
have treasured up against themselves, to be hereafter 
unfolded from their own archives, should occasion for 
it ever arise. 

Concord, N. H., 1883. P. P. 



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DEC 7 1891 




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CONTENTS. 



Introduction, 3 

Chapter I. 
William Lloyd Garrison, -..----9 

Chapter II. 
Nathaniel Peabody Rogers. ------ 28 

Chapter III. 

Slavery — As it Was, -.------47 

Chapter IV. 
Anti-Slavery — What it Was Not, and What it Was, - 72 

Chapter V. 

■ 

Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, with some Personal 

Sketches and Experiences, - - - - - -85 

Chapter VI. 
Conventions and Meetings with Rogers and Foster — 

Digression on New Organization, - 102 

Chap per VII. 
Acts of the Apostles Continued, with Pwsonal Sketches 

of Stephen Symonds Foster, - 123 

Chapter VIII. 
Acts of the Anostles Continued — Letter of Concord 
Women — Clerical Usurpation — More Revelations of 
New Organization — Riotous Proceedings at Dover — 
By the Editor of the Herald of Freedom, - - - 156 

Chapter IX. 
Meetings in West Chester — Riotous and Shameful Conduct 
— Ride to Derry, and what came of it — Franklin Mob 
Described in a Letter by Mr. Foster, ... 182 



(ON IT-.N I S. VII 

» 

Chapter X. 

Dartmouth College — Riotous Behavior of the Students — 
Strafford County Anniversary — Eastern Railroad and 
its Jim Crow Cars — Outrage on Colored Passengers, - 204 

Chap iek XI. 

Discussion on Church Organization by Rev. Mr. Putnam 
and Rev. Mr. Sargent — Hillsborough County Con- 
vention at Hancock — and Meeting at Nashua, by Mr. 
Foster, and what came of it, .... 24*1 

Chapter XII. 
The Martyr Period — Imprisonment or Allen, Brown, 

Beach, Harriman and Foster, ----- 283 

Chapter XIII. 
Conventions at Nantucket and New Bedford — Frederick 
Douglass Discovered — Letter from Mr. Oarrison — 
Meetings and Mob Demonstrations in Salem — Opera- 
tions in Maine — Mobs in Portland and Harwich, - 324 

('II \PIER XIV. 

Some Acts of the Pro-Slavery Apostles — Personal Encounter 
with the Henni ker, N. IE, Church and Suffolk, Mass., 
Association of Ministers — Rev. Dr. Bacon and Son on 
Slavery and Who Abolished it — the Church and Clergy 
in the Mexican War, ------- 364 

Chapter XV. 
Acts of Pro-Slavery Apostles — General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church — American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions — the Baptist Church — 
Methodist-Episcopal Church — -Protestant Episcopal 
Church — Campbellities — American Bible and Tract 
Societies — Fugitive Slave Law, ... - 386 

Chapter XVI. 
Some Personal Sketches and Reminiscences — a Last Speech 

in an Anti -Slavery Anniversary Gathering, - 479 

dec 7 mi 

LI ; ,y 



twl 



ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



CHAPTER I. 

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

The Acts of the twelve apostles are not the history 
of Christianity. Nor will the Acts of the Anti-Slavery 
Apostles be a history of the anti-slavery movement in 
the United States. My own beginning in that sublime 
enterprise was in the year 1840, when, dating from the 
establishment of The Liberator, in Boston, by William 
Lloyd Garrison, it was about ten years old. At that 
time, so far as can be shown, was first announced the 
doctrine of immediate unconditional emancipation to 
every slave, without compensation to master or expa- 
triation to the slave. 

Most of my anti-slavery work was of the missionary 
character, as was that of the first Christian apostles, 
who "went everywhere preaching the word." And 
the purpose of this Scripture is to present a true 
record, as far as practicable, of what passed under my 
own immediate observation, and in which it was my 
honor to bear some humble part. My earliest asso- 
ciates, editors as well as lecturers, are mostly now no 
more, and some personal account of a part of them 
is also in my present contemplation. My first anti- 
slavery newspapers were The Liberator, The Eman- 
cipator, published in New York, organ and property 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and Herald of 



IO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

Freedom, of Concord. New Hampshire. Through 
some changes occurring in 1840, The Emancipator 
passed out of the society's hands, but was immedi- 
ately succeeded by the National Anti-Slavery Standard, 
which continued with unswerving integrity till slavery 
was abolished in the country by presidential proclama- 
tion, and the male slave at least was made secure in 
his right of suffrage and citizenship. The first issue 
of his Liberator by Mr. Garrison was on January 1, 
1831. It was a most humble, unpretentious little sheet 
of four pages, about fourteen inches by nine in 
size, but charged with the destiny of a race of human 
beings whose'redemption from chattel, brutal bondage, 
was one day to shake to its foundations the mightiest 
republic ever yet existing on the globe. My first 
introduction to Mr. Garrison was in the early spring 
of 1839. I had just concluded to undertake a short 
lecturing and financial agency for the Massachu- 
setts Anti-Slavery Society, and was invited to a 
meeting of its executive committee, to mature my 
arrangements. It was an evening business session, in 
West street, Boston, and at the close Mr. Garrison 
invited me to his home, then of unassuming preten- 
sions, in Seaver Place, to pass the night. The next 
day was Saturday, and I went by stage to Fitchburg, 
about fifty miles, and on Sunday evening delivered my 
first address on slavery, as agent of my association. 
And though I did in the course of that year, and the 
beginning of 1840, accept and occupy the position of 
a minister for a very small Congregational church and 
society in an obscure New Hampshire town, it seems 
on the whole more pertinent, proper and desirable, to 
date the beginning of my life mission and labor from 
that anti-slavery committee meeting in Boston and 
introduction to Mr. Garrison, and first work as an anti- 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. II 

slavery agent in Fitchburg and through the county of 
Worcester in the spring of 1839. 

Of the boyhood history of Mr. Garrison this may 
not be the place to speak. Like many men of high 
eminence, he commenced life among the lowly. Nor 
was his native town, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 
ever distinguished for any but most conservative ideas 
in government, religion or social policy. His excellent 
mother, a devout member of the Baptist church, early 
sent him to learn the trade of a shoemaker. Fortu- 
nately too early, for his knees could not support the 
lap-stone, the anvil of the shoemaker of that day, and 
he was soon discharged, and entered as an apprentice 
to a cabinet maker. But neither was this a success. Nor 
did he even approach nor tend to his future high call- 
ing, until, while still a youth, he entered a printing office. 
That, as has been truly said, was to him high school, 
college and university, from which he graduated with 
honors, after long and faithful apprenticeship. 

His first business enterprise was to establish a little 
newspaper in his native town, which he characteristic- 
ally named the Free Press. He soon learned, how- 
ever, that the time for a Free Press was not vet. But 
the voice of his genius still said, Cry ! and he re- 
sponded next in Boston, with the National Philan- 
thropist, devoted doctrinally and practically to entire 
abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. His motto 
was, " Moderate drinking, the down-hill road to 
drunkenness." This undertaking was in the vear 
1827, when he was twenty-two years old. But the 
Philanthropist, like the Free Press, proved a prema- 
ture birth. In 1828, his powers of mind and heart 
coming to be better appreciated, he had and accepted 
a proposition to go to Bennington, Yerruont, and 
establish a political paper to be known as The Journal 



12 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

of the Times, and to advocate the claims of John 
Quincy Adams to the Presidency of the United States. 
Here, again, was a failure, and this journal soon slept 
with its predecessors. However, the valiant, perse- 
vering young editor was still full of courage and hope, 
and held on his way. He soon made acquaintance 
with Benjamin Lundy, an early, brave and true- 
hearted Quaker anti-slavery man, though hardly yet a 
pronounced abolitionist. Of kindred spirit, in the 
main, the two men formed a partnership in the 
autumn of 1829, and together published the Genius of 
Universal Emancipation. 

But though of one spirit, there was in methods 
between the two men a difference wide as earth and 
heaven. Mr. Lundy, in common with the highest 
humanities of the time, only demanded a gradual 
removal of slavery. Mr. Garrison, instead of grad- 
ual, almost stunned the nation with the new and 
more excellent evangel: "Immediate and Uncon- 
ditional Emancipation !" 

Here, then, was a new problem to be solved, or 
reconciled. An organized existence with one heart, 
but two voices : one serene, quiet, such as men might 
hear but not fear ; the other the seven unloosed 
Apocalyptic thunders that men should hear, and hear- 
ing, tremble, as had Thomas Jefferson already, even in 
anticipation, almost half a century before the terrible 
utterance was heard by mortal ear ! But Friend 
Lundy's persuasion prevailed for the present. After 
long, honest consideration and discussion, he finally 
said to Mr. Garrison : " Well, thee may put thy 
initials to thy editorial articles and I will put my 
initials to mine." 

But the stern logic of events soon showed that iron 
and clay could never be so welded together. This 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 13 

was in Baltimore, a slave-breeding, slave-trading, 
slave-holding city ; indeed, had already become a 
great shipping emporium of the domestic slave trade 
of the United States! where, as has been said, slave 
pens flaunted their signs in open day on the principal 
streets, their rich owners the best city society and 
most devout worshippers in Christian churches. The 
wonder was that the gradualism of Lundy could be 
tolerated. And he soon learned who had struck at 
the great tap root of the deadly upas. Mr. Garrison 
wrote : " My demand for immediate emancipation so 
alarmed and excited the people everywhere, that 
where Friend Lundy would get one new subscriber I 
would knock off a dozen." And so the Genius of 
Universal Emancipation would undoubtedly have soon 
been buried in the tomb of its three predecessors who 
owed their paternity to Mr. Garrison. But his intre- 
pidity and fidelity in denouncing the domestic slave 
trade and exposure of its great cruelty, in the action 
of a ship captain engaged in it from his own native 
town of Newburyport, led to his arrest on a charge of 
libel, and conviction, fine, and imprisonment in a 
Baltimore jail. Nor had he one friend in the city to 
prevent it, if even to deplore his fate. 

Released from prison, his fine and court expenses 
being paid by Mr. Arthur Tappan of New York, and 
his partnership with Friend Lundy dissolved by 
mutual consent and in most cordial spirit, Mr. Garri- 
son conceived the thought of establishing a paper at 
Washington, where the slave power and the domestic 
slave trade, in all their terrors, had established them- 
selves under the sheltering wing and by direct 
authority of the Federal Government. Having in 
August, 1830, issued his prospectus, he visited the 
principal cities between Baltimore and Boston to test 



14 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

the tone of the public feeling for such an enterprise. 
But though he found Boston scarcely more friendly to 
his doctrines and determinations against slavery than 
even Baltimore itself, he finally concluded that it, 
rather than Washington, was the ground whereon 
The Liberator should be set up. 
Writing, after his tour of observation, he said : 
During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting 
the minds of the people by a series of discourses on 
the subject of slavery, every place I visited gave fresh 
evidence of the fact that a greater revolution in pub- 
lic sentiment was to be effected in the Free States, and 
particularly in New England, than at the South. I 
found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, 
detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, 
and apathy more frozen than among slave owners 
themselves. Of course there were individual excep- 
tions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted 
but did not dishearten me. I determined at every 
hazard to lift up the standard of emancipation in the 
eyes of the nation within sight of Bunker Hill and in 
the birth-place of liberty. That standard is now 
unfurled, and long may it float, unhurt by the spolia- 
tions of time or the missiles of a desperate foe, till 
every chain be broken and every bondman set free ! 
Let Southern oppressors tremble. Bet all the ene- 
mies of the persecuted blacks tremble ! Assenting to 
the self-evident truth maintained in the Declaration 
of Independence, that "all men are created equal and 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the 
immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. 
In Bark Street Church, on the fourth of July, 1829, in 
an address on slavery, I unsuspectingly assented to 
the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual aboli- 
tion. I seize this opportunity to make a full and une- 
quivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon 
of my God, of my country, and of the poor slaves, 
for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, 
injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation from 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 15 

my pen was published in the Genius of Universal 
Emancipation, at Baltimore, in September, 1829. My 
conscience is now satisfied. I am aware that many 
object to the severity of my language. But is there 
not cause for severity ? I will be as harsh as truth, 
and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject 
I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moder- 
ation. No ! No ! Tell a man whose house is on fire 
to give a moderate alarm ; tell him to moderately res- 
cue his wife from the hands of the ravisher ; tell the 
mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire 
into which it has fallen ; but urge me not to use mod- 
eration in a cause like the present ! I am in earnest 
—I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not 
retreat a single inch. And I will be heard. The 
apathy of the people is enough to make every statue 
leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection 
of the dead !* 

Thus, at last, had come the hour and the man. 
The great clock of the eternities struck the hour. 
And out of the dread silences came the prophetic 
word which was to finish the work of Washington and 
the Revolution, proclaiming " Liberty throughout all 
the land, to all the inhabitants thereof." In a Balti- 
more prison he had learned to "remember them that 
are in bonds, as bound with them ;" and this was his 
self-consecration, in the earnest strains of Thomas 
Pringle : 

11 Oppression ! I have seen thee face to face, 
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow ; 
But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now— 
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place 
Of deep abhorrence ! Scorning the disgrace 
Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow, 
I also kneel ; but with far other vow 
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base ;— 
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins, 
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand. 
Thy brutalizing sway — till Afric's chains 
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land — 
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod : 
Such is the vow I take : So help me God !" 



* The Liberator, Vol. i, No. i : Saturday, January i, 1831. 



l6 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

This was the man in his sixth and twentieth year. 
His work and word, if not his name, was The Libera- 
tor. And to the end this was his motto : " My coun- 
try is the world ; my countrymen are all mankind." 

Of the philosophy and method of Mr. Garrison as 
the acknowledged leader of the anti-slavery move- 
ment, a few words cannot here be out of place. In 
scripture phrase it might be sufficient to say, "the 
weapons of his warfare were not carnal." He was 
ever pre-eminently a man of peace. At this time he 
was a devout believer in the truest, best interpretation 
of the New Testament, especially of the Sermon on 
the Mount and the story of the Good Samaritan. He 
held his mission to be a completion of the work begun 
in the Revolutionary War ; but in magnitude, sublim- 
ity and solemnity, as well as in probable results on the 
destiny of the world, as far transcending that, as 
moral truth and right transcend physical force. All 
war, he held to be inherently, intrinsically wrong. 
And so he early declared all carnal weapons, even for 
deliverance from bondage, contrary to the spirit of 
Christ as well as of His teachings ; and even coun- 
selled the slaves earnestly against any resort to them 
in achieving their liberty. And the Constitution of 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, work of his hand, 
contained such a provision. 

In a " Declaration of Principles adopted by a con- 
vention assembled in Philadelphia to organize a 
national anti - slavery association," are words like 
these from the same brain, heart and hand : 

The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable ; to invade 
it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man 
has a right to his own body, to the products of his 
labor, to the protection of law, and to the common 
advantages of society. It is piracy by our laws to 
buy or steal a native African and subject him to servi- 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 1 7 

tude : surely the sin is as great to enslave an American. 
Every American citizen who detains a human being in 
involuntary bondage is (according to Exodus 21 :i6,) 
a man stealer. The slaves ought instantly to be set 
free, and brought under the protection of law. 

After much more in similar strain, follows this: 

These are our views and principles — these our 
designs and measures. With entire confidence in the 
over-ruling justice of God, we plant ourselves upon 
the Declaration of our Independence and the truths of 
Divine Revelation as upon the Everlasting Rock. We 
shall send forth agents to lift up everywhere the voice 
of remonstrance, of warning, of entreaty and of rebuke. 

We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively, 
anti-slavery tracts and periodicals. 

We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause 
of the suffering and the dumb. 

We shall aim at a purification of the churches from 
all participation in the guilt of slavery. 

We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the 
whole nation to speedy repentance. 

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be 
personally defeated, but our principles, never ! Truth, 
jnstice, reason, humanity, must and will gloriously 
triumph ! 

In youth, Garrison had been a pronounced politi- 
cian of the conservative party, as were most of the 
leading men of his native town. It was the sound of 
the Greek revolution against Turkish despotism which 
first filled his ear, and fired his young soul with the 
spirit of freedom. The powerful appeals of Daniel 
Webster and Henry Clay in the American Senate fed 
the flame. Webster became to him the divinity of 
the forum. He even contemplated at one time a 
brief term at the West Point military school that he 
might take the field in person in the cause of the 
struggling Greeks. John Randolph had not yet told 
him and Webster and Clay that "the Greeks were at 
their own doors." 



iS WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

But as Mr. Garrison increased in wisdom and 
spiritual stature, and it became evident that he was to 
be the divinely constituted leader in the sublimest 
movement in behalf of liberty and humanity of many 
generations, his vision was so anointed that he saw 
clearly that, though he was indeed to wrestle with 
principalities and powers, and with spiritual wicked- 
ness in high places also, his weapons were to be drawn 
from no earthly magazines. The sword of the spirit 
of Truth only, was to be made mighty in his hands, to 
an extent such as had not been beheld before, from the 
day when an apostate Christianity in the person of 
Constantine the Great, mounted the throne of the 
Caesars and most ingloriously proclaimed herself 
mistress of the world ! 

When the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed 
in Philadelphia, in 1833, Garrison was a New Testa- 
ment Christian, as he understood the word, in all the 
word can rightly be made to mean. And most of all, 
did he reverence the doctrines of freedom and peace. 
Peace on earth, liberty and good-will to men, to all 
men, and all women, were then his proclamation and 
song. Human life he came to regard as sacred above 
all other things. And so capital punishment and 
war, as well as slavery, were to him an abhorrence. 
Hence, logically, he renounced all allegiance to human 
governments founded in military force, and openly 
proclaimed himself disciple of the Prince of Peace, in 
these memorable words : 

O Jesus ! noblest of patriots, greatest of heroes, 
most glorious of martyrs ! Thine is the spirit of 
universal liberty and love, of uncompromising hostility 
to every form of injustice and wrong. But not with 
weapons of death dost thou assail thy enemies, that 
they may be vanquished or destroyed. For thou dost 
not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against prin- 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 19 

cipalities and powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
high places. Therefore hast thou put on the whole 
armor of God ; having thy loins girt about with truth, 
and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and 
thy feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of 
peace ; going forth to battle with the shield of faith, 
the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit ! 
WOrt In- of all imitation art thou, in overcoming the 
evil that is in the world. For, by the shedding of thy 
own blood, but not the blood of thy bitterest foes 
even, shalt thou at last obtain a universal victory. 

The Christian's victory alone 

Hostility forever ends ; 
Erects an undisputed throne 

And turns his foes to friends. 

Ye great, ye mighty of the earth ! 

Ye conquerers, learn this secret true ! 

A secret of celestial birth — 

By suffering to subdue! 

— Letter to Kossuth. 

The New England Non-Resistance Society was 
organized in 1838, and Mr. Garrison was elected cor- 
responding secretary and member of the executive 
-committee ; and many of its first official papers and 
records, besides breathing his spirit, bear unmistak- 
able imprint of his brain and hand. A portion of the 
preamble to its constitution reads thus : 

Whereas, The penal code of the first covenant 
has been abrogated by Jesus Christ ; and whereas 
our Savior has left man example that we should fol- 
low his steps in forbearance, submission to injury and 
non-resistance, even when life itself is at stake ; and 
whereas the weapons of a true Christian are not car- 
nal but spiritual, and therefore mighty through God 
to the pulling down of strongholds ; and whereas we 
profess to belong to a kingdom not of this world, 
which is without local or geographical boundaries, in 
which there is no division of caste, nor inequality of 
.sex ; therefore, we, the undersigned, etc., etc. 



20 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

A part of Article II of the constitution reads: 
The members of this society agree in the opinion 
that no man nor body of men, however constituted 
or by whatever name called, have right to take the 
life of man as penalty for transgression ; that no one 
who professes to have the spirit of Christ can consist- 
ently sue a man at law for redress of injuries, or 
thrust any evil-doer into prison ; or hold any office in 
which he would come under obligation to execute any 
penal enactments, or take any part in the military 
service ; or acknowledge allegiance to any human 
government. * * * 

At this time it cannot be doubted that the belief of 
Mr. Garrison in both the inspiration and authority of 
the Bible, the Trinity and Atonement, but especially 
in all the teachings and precepts of Christ, was 
almost precisely such as was then, and still is pro- 
fessed, by the whole Evangelical church. Among his 
many devout poetical effusions this will be found : 

SONNET TO THE BIBLE. 

O Book of books ! Though skepticism flout 

Thy sacred origin, thy worth decry ; 

Though trancendental folly give the lie 

To what thou teachest : though the critic doubt 

This fact ; that miracle ; and raise a shout 

Of triumph o'er each incongruity 

He in thy pages may perchance espy ; 

As in his strength, the effulgent sun shines out, 

Hiding innumerous stars, so dost thou shine. 

With heavenly light all human works excelling. 

Thy oracles are holy and divine, 

Of free salvation through a Savior telling. 

All truth, all excellence dost thou enshrine; 

The mists of sin and ignorance expelling. 

Such was Mr. Garrison as a Christian, as a follower 
of the Christ of the New Testament. And won- 
drously consistent with his faith were his spirit, his 
life, and his whole character. 

At home or abroad ; in private or in public ; as 
writer or as speaker ; as husband, father, friend, 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 2 1 

neighbor, or in whatever relation ; after long, wide^ 
and intimate acquaintance with men in pulpit, church, 
politics, and the world at large ; for the constant 
exercise of what we call the christian virtues and 
graces, I surely have seen few the peer, none the 
superior of William Lloyd Garrison. 

And yet he was called an infidel by almost all the 
universal church of the nation, from the university 
and theological seminary down to the humblest village 
pastors, churches, and Sundav-schools. With a life 
pure and spotless as the white plumage of angels, his 
whole character and conduct unsullied by the slight- 
est breath of reproach, blessing many temporally and 
spiritually with whom he had intercourse, gentle and 
patient with ignorance, forbearing and long-suffering 
with prejudice and perverseness, and yet bold and 
brave, unconcealing and uncompromising where op- 
pression and iniquity, injustice and cruelty were to be 
exposed and rebuked, no matter in what high places 
entrenched — yet was he branded, blasted as infidel, 
even atheist, when those words were made to stand 
for, were presumed to stand for all that is to be 
dreaded, shunned, execrated and exterminated at 
whatever cost ! 

Revering the New Testament as law divine, he 
studied and respected its teachings. Did he read 
' ; Resist Not Evil ?" He observed the sacred require- 
ment, preached it in his journal, The Liberator, and 
practiced it everywhere. Hence arose the Non-Re- 
sistance Society, as well as a great national anti- 
slavery movement, which, without proscription, rested 
substantially and was largely sustained on a similar 
foundation. 

With him 'Move your enemies" never meant shoot 
them in war, nor hang nor imprison them in peace. 



22 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

And so The Liberator, which was his own property 
from first to last, was not only a proclamation of 
peace, liberty and love on earth, but of general, uni- 
versal unfolding, progressing and perfecting to all 
man and womankind. 

But, joining himself to no religious sect nor party, 
chained down to no narrow, dogmatic ringbolt, he 
had ever eye and ear, as well as heart and hospitality, 
for whatever new truth might appear — in whatever 
book, science or religion it might be found. And 
what wonder if years of violent opposition and per- 
secution from almost the whole American church and 
clergy on account of his fidelity to the christian doc- 
trines of peace, purity and liberty as they were taught 
in the sermon on the mount, and the unswerving 
example of its great Author, should have clarified and 
quickened his vision mentally and spiritually ! At 
any rate, he subsequently re-examined the faiths and 
formulas of the professedly evangelical sects in reli- 
gion, including their avowed belief in plenary inspira- 
tion of Holy Scripture. 

As one result of his farther investigations, he 
attended a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, in 
1853, called especially to consider the claim and char- 
acter of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. The 
meeting was very large, having representatives, men 
and women, from east and west, continuing four days, 
with three long sessions each. In one of them Mr. 
Garrison offered and ably defended a series of reso- 
lutions, the first of which was to this purport : 

Resolved, That the doctrines of the American 
church and priesthood, that the Bible is the word of 
God ; that whatever it contains was given by divine 
inspiration, and that it is the only rule of faith and 
practice, is self-evidently absurd ; is exceedingly inju- 
rious both to the intellect and the soul ; is highly per- 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 23 

nicious in its application, and a stumbling block in 
the way of human redemption. 

And yet, to the end of life, no man more venerated 
or made wiser use of the Bible than did Mr. Garrison. 
A late testimonial of his reads thus : 

1 have lost my traditional and educational notions 
of the holiness of the Bible, but 1 have gained greatly, 
I think, in my estimation of it. * * * I am fully 
aware how grievously the priesthood have perverted 
it and wielded it as an instrument of spiritual despot- 
ism and in opposition to the sacred cause of human- 
ity ; still to no other volume do I turn with so much 
interest ; no other do I consult or turn to so fre- 
quently ; to no other am I so indebted for light and 
strength ; no other is so identified with the growth of 
human freedom and progress. To no other have I 
appealed so effectively in aid of the various reforma- 
tory movements which I have espoused. And it 
embodies an amount of excellence so great as to 
make it, in my estimation, The Book of Books. 

Garrison early learned to doubt nothing only 
because it was new, and he accepted nothing unless 
he saw on it more than the mold and moss of age and 
time. He found the world, even its most enlightened 
people, dead in the trespasses and sins of intemper- 
ance, slavery, war, capital punishment, and woman's 
enslavement. He lived to set on foot, or largely and 
liberally co-operate in enterprises and instrumentali- 
ties for correcting all these abuses, for righting all 
these fearful wrongs. 

But at last there came another stranger to his door. 
With characteristic hospitality that door was again 
opened. Francis Jackson, one of the noblest, bravest, 
most steadfast supporters of Mr. Garrison and his life 
work, once said with respect to sheltering and protect- 
ing the fugitive slave : "When I unfeelingly shut my 
door against a hunted, fleeing slave, may the God of 
compassion close the door of his mercy against me !" 



24 WILLIAM LLOYD HARRISON. 

So no slave, nor even stranger, ever appealed in 
vain to Garrison. The new guest was Spiritualism. 
That was a " sect everywhere spoken against " as fast 
as it grew in numbers — as anti-slavery had been in the 
generation preceding it. Even many of the best 
abolitionists, men and women who had bravely suf- 
fered persecution for and with the slave, treated it 
with contempt and scorn. Not so, never so, with Mr. 
Garrison. Many of his truest friends, some of them 
Quakers, as well as of other religious denominations, 
became early and devoted spiritualists, and that alone 
would have forever prevented him from dismissing, 
still less condemning, any stranger or defendant 
uncondemned, or even unheard. 

And in finally giving the new and mysterious idea 
recognition, he found, and to the end of his life 
believed, that he had literally entertained angels, and 
angels not unawares. 

Nor did he hesitate to make proclamation of the 
new and sublime Evangel. In The Liberator of 
March 3d, 1854, is an article from his pen, of which 
the following are but the opening paragraphs, giving 
a detailed account of a highly demonstrative seance 
he had just attended in New York, where writing, 
rapping, drumming, "drumming in admirable time 
and most spiritual manner," and other wondrous phe- 
nomena were witnessed. He wrote : 

We are often privately asked what we think of the 
"spiritual manifestations," so called, and whether we 
have had any opportunities to investigate them. 

When we first heard of the " Rochester knock- 
ings" we supposed (not personally knowing the per- 
sons implicated) that there might be some collusion in 
that particular case, or if not, that the phenomena 
would, ere long, elicit a satisfactory solution, indepen- 
dent of any spiritual agency. As the manifestations 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 25 

have spread from house to house, from city to city, 
from one part of the country to the other, across the 
Atlantic into Europe, till now the civilized world is 
compelled to acknowledge their reality, however 
diverse in accounting for them; as these manifestations 
continue to increase in variety and power, so that all 
suspicion of trick or imposture becomes simply absurd 
and preposterous ; and as every attempt to find a 
solution for them in some physical theory relating to 
electricity, the odic force, clairvoyance, and the like, 
has thus far proved abortive — it becomes every intelli- 
gent mind to enter into an investigation of th'em with 
candor and fairness, as opportunity may offer, and to 
bear such testimony in regard to them as the facts 
may warrant ; no matter what ridicule it may excite 
on the part of the uninformed or sceptical. 

As for ourselves, most assuredly we have been in no 
haste to jump to a conclusion in regard to phenomena 
so universally diffused, and of so extraordinary a 
character. For the last three years, we have kept 
pace with nearly all that has been published on the 
subject ; and we have witnessed, at various times, 
many surprising "manifestations;" and our con- 
viction is that they cannot be accounted for on any 
other theory than that of spiritual agency. This 
theory, however is not unattended with discrepancies, 
difficulties, and trials. It is certain that, if it be true, 
there are many deceptive spirits, and that the apostolic 
injunction to "believe not every spirit," but to try 
them in every possible way, is specially to be regarded, 
or the consequences may prove very disastrous. We 
might write a long essay on what we have seen and 
heard touching the matter, but this we reserve for 
some other occasion. 

At the burial of his friend Henry C. Wright, who 
died on the 16th of August, 1870, he made one of 
the most eloquent and impressive addresses of his 
whole life. Mr. Wright had been for several years a 
pronounced and active spiritualist, and this is the 



26 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

tribute, or a portion of it, which Mr. Garrison paid to 
that part of his life work : 

I see it reproachfully stated in one newspaper at 
least, that he was a spiritualist. What if he was ? 
That is simply a question of evidence. What has 
been possible in any age of the world as to spiritual 
phenomena, is possible in ours. And if we cannot 
believe what transpires in our days, before our own 
eyes, we certainly do not and cannot believe what is 
merely reported to have taken place ages ago. What 
shall be said of the intelligence or sincerity of those 
who say they implicitly accept all the marvels and 
miracles recorded as having taken place thousands of 
years ago, with not a living witness to attest to any 
one of them ; while they scout as arrant imposture 
perfectly analogous wonders and revelations, though 
these are confirmed by multitudes of living witnesses 
whose faithfulness cannot be questioned, and whose 
critical judgment and profound caution refute every 
imputation of folly or ignorance. 

When spiritualism was on trial at the bar of the 
judgment of this world, some of Mr. Garrison's friends 
saw with deep regret his hospitality and charity 
towards it. There were those who even denied posi- 
tively that he was, or was in any danger of becoming, 
a spiritualist. So doutbtless his early political and 
religious associates felt and reasoned, when they saw 
his heart warmed, and his hand and voice were lifted 
in behalf of the imbruted slave and his few devoted, 
but despised and persecuted friends. With his shin- 
ing talents and deep devotion to his then sincerely 
cherished political and religious principles, both of 
respectable and popular character, how could he ever 
become an Abolitionist ? 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 27 

But there's a Divinity that shapes our ends ; and 

Garrison was a young man when he wrote : 

" I am an Abolitionist, 

Oppression's deadly foe ; 
In God's great name will I resist 

And lay the monster low. 
In God's great name do I demand 

To all be Freedom given, 
That peace and joy may fill the earth 

And songs go up to heaven." 

And spiritualism he yoked to his chariot of salvation 
so soon as he espoused it in its fullness and conscious 
truth, as had already his friend Henry C. Wright, a 
few years before, and doubtless in the full faith and 
hope of Lord Brougham, when he wrote : "Even in 
the most cloudless skies of Skepticism, I see a rain-cloud, 
if it be no bigger than a man's hand, and its name is 
Spiritualism." 



CHAPTER II. 

NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS 

When some discerning' Romans saw how many 
statues were reared in their city to persons of only 
indifferent merit, while Cato, one of their wisest and 
best, had none, they wondered. But the great man 
had answered the question beforehand : " Better that 
posterity should ask why Cato has not a monument, 
than why he has." 

In the cemeteries of Concord, New Hampshire, are 
many memorial stones. Some of great beauty and 
cost, with proportionally elaborate and, perhaps, appro- 
priate inscriptions. But situated among them is one 
lot of the ordinary family size, protected by no iron 
railing, no granite embankment, and whose dead level 
surface would seem never to have been invaded for 
burial, agricultural or any other human purpose. 

And yet to that hallowed spot I have conducted 
many devout pilgrims from east and west, both women 
and men. For there, since Sunday, the iSth day of 
October, 1846, exactly thirty-six years ago this very 
day, and almost hour, have slumbered the mortal 
remains of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, surely one of 
the brightest, noblest, truest and every way most gifted 
sons, not only of the Granite state, but of any state 
of this union of states, departing at the early age of 
only fifty-two years. 

And no visitor from near or remote, ever fails to 
ask, sometimes with almost stunning emphasis : 
" Why has Rogers no monument ?" 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 29 

Should that sacred spot speak out from its silence 
of six and thirty years, doubtless its answer to the 
eminently pertinent inquiry would be, as was that of 
Cato, so well remembered, so much admired, so often 
repeated now, after more than two thousand years. 

Such as was Rogers, never die. They need no 
monuments reared by other hands than their own. 
Time mows down all marble and granite, tramples out 
all inscriptions in bronze or brass. And so such reg- 
isters are soon lost for evermore. It has been said of 
the immortal Senator Sumner and his humble tomb- 
stone at Mount Auburn, and lowly indeed it is : 

" The grass may grow o'er the lowly bed 
Where the noblest Roman hath laid his head ; 
But mind and thought, a nation's mind 
Embalm the lover of mankind." 

And scarcely of any man departed or still visible to 
mortal sight, could this be sung more appropriately 
than of the subject of this chapter ; and for some 
seven years editor of the Herald of Freedom, published 
in Concord, New Hampshire, ten or twelve years. 

Mr. Rogers was born at Plymouth, on the 3d of 
June, 1794, and was one of the tenth generation from 
him who is so well, widely and honorably known as 
" Rev. John Rogers," the first in that blessed com- 
pany of martyrs who suffered in the reign of the 
bigoted and bloody Mary, in the year 1555. And 
surely the blood of the martyr, literally and spiritually, 
flowed in the veins of his remote descendant, answer- 
ing "heart to heart," as well as " face to face." For 
those who have been privileged to see both our 
departed editor in the flesh and form, and a singularly 
well preserved portrait of the martyr in the American 
Antiquarian Society hall at Worcester, Massachusetts, 
have wondered at the remarkable resemblance in the 



30 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

shape of head and face, in complexion, color of eye 
and hair, and the whole general expression of the two 
memorable men. He graduated with honors at Dart- 
mouth college, in the year 18 16. He studied law with 
the distinguished Richard Fletcher, and then settled 
down to its practice in his native town, marrying a 
daughter of Hon. Daniel Farrand, of Burlington, Ver- 
mont. He conducted a flourishing and successful law 
practice in Plymouth for about twenty years before 
moving to Concord to take charge of the Herald of 
Freedom. 

As student in general literature, especially in his- 
tory and poetry, none of his day were before him. 
Few ever heard Shakespeare, Scott, Byron and Burns 
read more beautifully, more thrillingly, than at his 
fireside, surrounded by his estimable wife and seven 
children, with sometimes a few invited friends. But 
general reading and home delights never detracted 
from the duties of his profession. When he died, an 
intimate friend, who had known him long and well, 
wrote that so accurate was his knowledge of law, and 
so industrious was he in business, that the success of 
a client was always confidently expected from the 
moment his assistance was secured. His life mission, 
however, was neither literature nor law. He was in 
due time ordained, consecrated as a high priest in 
the great fellowship of humanity, and wondrously, 
divinely did he magnify his office in the ten or twelve 
last years of his earthly life. 

In the year 1835, he made acquaintance with 
Garrison, and soon placed himself at his side as the 
hated, hunted, persecuted champion of the American 
slave, as by this time Garrison was known to be. And 
from that time, too, Rogers was ever found the firm, 
unshaken, uncompromising friend and advocate of not 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 31 

only the anti-slavery enterprise, but of the causes of 
temperance, peace, rights of woman, abolition of the 
gallows and halter, and other social and moral reforms. 

Here may be the place to say what certainly should 
be said at some time and place, a few words on the 
early religious character of Mr. Rogers. For it is 
neither known to this generation nor presumed what 
manner of men and women were most of those who 
early espoused the cause of the American slave ; espe- 
cially in their relations to the popular and prevailing 
religion of their time. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were 
active and honored members in the Congregational 
church at Plymouth, when they espoused the cause of 
the slave. And they naturally looked, as did other 
anti-slavery christians, to the church and pulpit as 
the divinely appointed instrumentality for emancipat- 
ing the bondmen, especially of their own country, 
enslaved, too, by laws of their own enactment and 
religious sanction and approval. 

Perhaps a few excerpts from an early editorial in the 
Herald of Freedom will illustrate the quality of the 
religious sentiment and opinion of the editor, as well 
as the tone and temper of his heart and spirit. The 
whole article is in the Herald of August n, 1838, and 
is a review of a contribution to the Christian Exam- 
ine/-, entitled " The Presence of God." The Examiner 
was a Unitarian journal, the sect at that time quite 
alien to the more evangelical views of Mr. Rogers : 

We wander a moment from our technical anti- 
slavery sphere, to say, with permission of our readers, 
a word or two on a beautiful article in the Christian 
Examiner. It is from the pen of one of our gifted 
fellow citizens, to whom the unhappy subjects of 
insanity in this state owe so much for the public 
charity now contemplated in their behalf. It is writ- 
ten with great eloquence, perspicuity and force of 



32 NATHANIEL PEABQDY ROGERS. 

style ; and what is more, it seems scarcely to want 
that spirit of heart-broken Christianity so apt to bS> 
missing- in the peaceful speculation of reviews, and 
may we not say in the speculations of the elegant 
corps among- whom the writer of the article is here 
found. We will find briefly what fault we can with 
the article. Its beauties need not be pointed put. 
They lie scattered profusely over its face. It is an 
article on " The Presence of God," and treats of our 
relations to Him. But does it set forth that relation 
as involving our need of the Lord jesus Christ, in 
order that we may be able to stand in it ? For our- 
selves we cannot contemplate God, and dare not look 
towards Him unconnected with Christ. Our writer 
seems boldly to look upon Him as the strong-eyed 
eagle gazes into the sun. God is of purer eyes than to 
behold iniquity. He cannot look upon sin but with 
abhorrence. We have sinned ; therefore we fear to 
behold him. In Christ alone is He our Father in 
heaven, and we His reconciled children. In Christ we 
dare take hold of His hand, and of the skirts of His 
almighty garments. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified is the medium through whom alone we dare 
look upon God, in His works, His providence, or His 
grace. Sinless man might, without this medium. 
Fallen man may not. * * * The writer con- 
templated God in His works — but he seems, though 
awed, elevated and delighted at their grandeur, beauty 
and wisdom, to feel still baffled of the great end in their 
contemplation. Does he not, we would ask him, feel 
the absence of some link in the chain of communica- 
tion with this ineffable being, which might, if not inter- 
rupted, anchor his soul securely within the veil, which 
after all continues to shroud him from communion and 
sight ? Can he, in sight of the works of God, speak 
out and sing in the strains of the Singer of Israel ? 
* * * The writer speaks of the communion of 
God with our minds. This he seems to regard with 
chief interest. He speaks of " the need of having 
attention," meaning intellectual attention, " waked up 
to these old truths." " Listlessness of mind," he con- 
tinues, " an inveterate habit of inattention to the exis- 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. $$ 

tence of the Eternal Spirit, needs to be broken in 
upon. We need to help each other to escape a fatuity 
of mind on this subject that we may feel that God's 
ark still rides o'er the world's waves, and that the 
burning bush has not gone out." There is an "inat- 
tention," it is true, but it is of the heart, not merely of 
the mind, of the nature and not of "habit" merely ; a 
spiritual inattention, or rather alienation from God, 
which must be broken in upon. It is not the creature 
of habit. Adam felt it in all its force on the very day 
of his first transgression. He heard the voice of God, 
which, in his innocency, he had hailed with joy, beyond 
all he felt at the beauties of Paradise ; heard it walk- 
ing in the garden in the cool of the day, and he hid 
himself from the presence of the Lord God among the 
trees of the garden. His wife also hid herself, for 
she, too, had transgressed, and we, their moral heirs, 
hide ourselves so to this day. They could walk in the 
garden in sight of the beautiful works of God, per- 
haps admire the splendors of Eden, but when they 
heard His voice, they hid themselves. Not from habit 
surely, that not being the creature of a day. There 
was "inveteracy," not of habit, but of fallen nature. It 
is that which must be "broken in upon" before we shall 
incline to come out from among the trees to welcome 
the presence of God. It may be there is a figurative 
meaning in this hiding among the trees from the pres- 
ence of Him who made those trees. And may we 
not deceive ourselves in supposing we contemplate 
Gqd in His works, when, in truth, we are seeking to 
hide ourselves from His presence among the glorious 
trees of this earth's garden ? * * * We 
have revolted from God. We are born universally in 
a state of alienation from Him. The Scriptures and 
all experience teach this. We do not more certainly 
inherit the transmitted form of our fallen first-parents, 
than their descended nature. We are born with the 
need of being " born again." Of this we are sure. 
We cannot evade it. It is our fate in the wisdom of 
God. We cannot escape it any more than the Old 
World could the deluge. * * * We have 
an ark of safety, to be sure, capacious enough to save 



34 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

the entire race of man. It will save only those who 
will enter it. And the time of entering, as it was at 
the flood, is before the sky of probation is overcast. 
The door is that now, as then, before the falling of 
the first great drops of the eternal thunder shower. 
The ark of safety, we need not say, is Christ. He is 
the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come 
to the Father but by Him. Whoever hath seen Him 
hath seen the Father. And by Him is the only mani- 
festation of the presence of God. The presence of 
His power may be seen in all objects around us. But 
His strong love to the children of men, cannot be seen 
but through Christ. 

* * But we are forgetting that our Herald 

is a small sheet. We have not space to notice the 
exquisite beauties of our writer's production as a 
composition merely ; or the argument it draws of 
Cod's presence from his works ; and as it purports to 
notice merely this evidence of his presence, we will 
not here express our regret that the name of Christ is 
not mentioned in the article. May the gifted writer, 
if he be out of the ark of safety, not delay to enter in. 
Let him not tarry without to gaze with the eye of 
elegant curiosity on the scenery of this Sodom world 
— but bow his neck, "and enter while there's room." 
And as we bespeak his immediate heed to "the one 
thing needful, " so we demand his pen, voice, influ- 
ence, prayer and action and open cooperation in the 
deliverance of his fellow countrymen from the Chain 
of Slavery. 

Thus loyal was the editor of the Herald to the 
religious doctrine and teaching of his time in the 
church of his choice. The church of his fathers 
through nine generations. Thus diligently had he 
studied and considered them; and thus eloquently and 
faithfully, though tenderly and affectionately, did he 
present, recommend and enforce them, whenever and 
wherever he had opportunity. 

In 1838 he removed from Plymouth to Concord, 
and became sole editor of the Herald of Freedom. 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 35 

He had, from its establishment in 1834, furnished 
many most brilliant and trenchant articles for its 
columns. To the readers of the paper, now alas ! 
the most of them, with its editor, no more, nothing 
need be said of his power with his pen. Only a 
single duodecimo volume of three hundred and eighty 
pages of his editorial writings has been reprinted and 
preserved, and that long ago disappeared from the 
market. Ten dollars, it is said, have been offered for 
a single copy ; though that perhaps might have been 
before most of the early readers had passed away. 
Some of its descriptive articles have been pronounced 
as unsurpassed in life and vigor, brilliancy and beauty, 
as were their rebukes of slave holders and their 
abettors and accomplices, scathing, withering, but 
always eminently just. 

His " Jaunt to the Y\ Trite Mountains " with Garrison 
in the year 1841, was copied from the Herald columns 
into a neat tract and was a capital contribution to 
the tourist literature of that period. Its length pre- 
cludes possibility of insertion here ; but one of less 
volume and of scarcely less power entitled Ailsa 
Craig, may not so reasonably be rejected. For the 
world never knew the sublimely gifted writer as it 
should have known him, and doubtless would, but for 
his too early removal to higher spheres. Young 
readers will surely pardon a page or two when they 
have read them, introduced here for their profit as 
well as pleasure, showing not only the power of the 
writer, but also giving them a description of one of 
the most remarkable as well as interesting spots in 
the British realm. It is from the Herald of Freedom 
of April 30, 1841: 

AILSA CRAIG. 

This famous rock in the Irish Sea, we meant to 
ha^e said something about when we saw it, long 



36 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

before this time. But anti-slavery makes us omit 
and forget the wonders of the Old World. We passed 
it on a trip from Scotland to Ireland. We left Glas- 
gow on the twenty-eighth of July, 1840, at ten in the 
morning, for Dublin. William Lloyd Garrison in 
company, our fellow passenger to the Irish Capital. 
* * We went on board a steamer and 

rode down the ship-thronged Clyde. Nothing can 
exceed its beauty below the great city of Glasgow. 
To be sure, they have robbed it of its native banks, — 
and commerce has substituted for the green slope, a 
sloping wall of neat and firm stone masonry on each 
side, and straightened its once indented shores. But 
the utility of the metamorphosis is so mighty, and so 
palpable, making this narrow stream, far away 
inland, the highway for the commerce of one of the 
great ports of Britain ; of a city as large as New York 
or Liverpool, where the largest ships may ride as 
freely as in the ocean for depth of water, that it gives 
it a most imposing, singular, and interesting appear- 
ance. It is hardly broader than some of the widest 
streets of London. Our little steamer elbowed its 
way among the keels that thronged it like "the full 
tide of human existence," along the slippery pave- 
ments and broad side-walks of Cheapside, or Glas- 
gow's Broadway, the swarming Irongate. It was 
amusing to see the ploughed up water roll along the 
stone banks, half way up their slopes, in waves that 
coiled and convolved like the folds of the sea serpent. 
The walls were a good deal higher than the natural 
shores, which were wet and low. They had filled in 
behind them with earth, and made high, wide and 
level land on either side which was now covered with 
old verdure, ami planted with stately trees : — and the 
promenader might take his rural walk there, side by 
side with the winged commerce of every quarter of 
the globe : — the "white sail gliding by the tree," and 
the smoky plumage of the steamers streaming off over 
among the glorious woodlands. We made our way 
steadily, though not rapidly down the widening chan- 
nel, and came to where the " bonnie " Yale of Leven, 
came upon the Clyde from Loch Lomond and its 



NATHANIEL PEAB0D\ ROGERS. 37 

enclosing mountains which we could descry in the 
misty distance, up the Vale. 

All abolitionists have heard of the Vale of Leven, 
and remember its Remonstrance to the Women of 
America, sent over here some four years ago, and 
unfurled over the heads of thousands in Broadway 
Tabernacle at an anti-slavery anniversary. The 
four thousand Scottish women who signed it, dwelt in 
the Vale of Leven. We saw John Summerville, the 
minister who obtained their signatures. What would 
induce one of our clergy, with any "weight of influ- 
ence " to be seen going about for ivomeris signatures 
to an abolition petition ? Where Leven Vale meets 
the Clyde rises a tremendous rock, in the clefts of 
which lodges the grim old fortress of Dumbarton 
Castle, famous in the history of Sir William Wallace. 

The river soon broadened into a frith, as the 
Scotch call their bays. The mountains retreated from 
each other, and sails were to be seen here and there at 
anchor in the coves and harbors of the wide waters 
near their bases. We met a naval horse race on the 
frith of eight beautiful little vessels at the very top of 
their speed. They were running the heats, in a wide 
circle, and leaning down hard to the sea close on 
each other's heels ; all sail crowded they made the 
water foam white about their prows. It was quite an 
animating sight, with none of the painful sensations 
at seeing poor quadruped horses scourged and pressed 
beyond their powers. There was no distress, nor 
faltering of wind, in these graceful little racers, as 
they swept the frith of Clyde. 

A Mr. McTear had come aboard the steamer at 
Greenock for Dublin. He was a Greenock merchant. 
We were talking with him on the deck when we spied 
a conical rock, as it seemed, rising out of the water 
some distance ahead. It appeared through the thin 
mists like a hay stack, and about as large. We spoke 
of it to Mr. McTear, and he told us it was Ailsa 
Craig. We remembered mention of it by Scott, in the 
Lord of the Isles, where he calls it rock instead of 
eraig, in the mouth of Robert Bruce : 

" Lord of the Isles, my trust in thee 
Is tirrn as Ailsa rock ! " 



38 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

We had supposed it was in the Forth on the other 
side of Scotland. As we were looking at it, 
Mr. McTear asked us to guess the distance to it. 
Strangers he said, were apt to greatly mistake the 
distance. We looked at the rock along the interven- 
ing water. We could get no aid from the shores 
which were at great distance, quite out of sight on one 
hand. We supposed of course, we should underrate 
the distance. So we stretched it liberally, as we 
thought, and guessed two miles, though it did not 
look like that distance. You have made the common 
mistake, he said ; it is over twenty. We could hardly 
credit it ; but he told us we should see it was so, for 
we would be over two hours getting to it and were 
going at ten knots. And over two hours it was ; and 
such was the deceptive character of the way, that 
when we thought Ave were coming right upon it, and 
wanting our friend Garrison, who was asleep below, 
to see it, we went down and told him to hurry up and 
see "Ailsa Rock." It proved, to the amazement of us 
both, that we were then nearly ten miles from it. 
And the little prominence, that looked so like a hay 
stack, or a hay cock, when we descried it first, grew 
as we neared it, a mighty mountain, nine hundred and 
eighty feet high, rising abruptly out of the sea, and 
two miles about the base. 

He had been himself governor of the Craig some 
years before, and had great sport and some danger in 
killing the birds. His way of killing them was with a 
club, and he told us how many thousands, we dare 
not say how many he had killed' in a single day of a 
famous kind of goose. He had let himself down to a 
quarter of the cliffs where they hunted to get the 
young and eggs, and the old ones attacked him and 
he fought them with his club till he was covered with 
blood, theirs and his own. He had a good mind, he 
said, to give them one gun, just to let us see them fly, 
as we were strangers. As he had been the Marquis's 
governor, he said, he would venture that he would 
overlook it in him. He ordered his boy to bring the 
musket. The boy returned and said it was left 
behind at Glasgow. " Load up the swivel then," said 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 39 

the captain. " It will be all the better. It will make 
quite a flight, ye'll Unci. Load her up pretty well." 
The steamer meanwhile kept nearing the giant craig, 
which was a bare rock from summit to sea, and all of 
a dull, chalky whiteness, occasioned, as the captain 
said, by the excrement of the birds. We saw caves in 
the sides of the mountain and down by the water ; 
the retreats, our informant told us, in former times, of 
the smugglers who used to frequent the craig and 
carry on an extensive trade from these places of 
concealment. We had got so near as to see the white 
birds flitting across the entrances to the caverns like 
bees about the hive. With the spy-glass we could see 
them distinctly and in very considerable numbers ; 
and at length approached so that we could see them 
on the ledges all over the sides of the mountain. We 
had passed the skirt of the craig, and w^ere within a 
half mile, or less, of its base. With the glass we could 
now see the entire mountain side peopled with the 
sea fowl, and could hear their whimpering, household 
cry as they moved about, or nestled in domestic snug- 
ness on the ten thousand ledges. The air, too, about 
the precipices, seemed to be alive with them. Still 
we had not the slightest conception of their frightful 
multitude. We got about the center of the mountain, 
when the swivel was fired. The shot went point 
blank against it and struck the stupendous preci- 
pice, as from top to bottom with a reverberation like 
the discharge of a hundred cannon. 

And what a sight followed ! They rose up from 
that mountain, the countless myriads and millions of 
sea birds, in a universal, overwhelming cloud that 
covered the whole heavens, and their cry was like the 
cry of an alarmed nation. Up they went, millions 
upon millions, ascending like the smoke of a furnace ; 
countless as the sands on the sea shore ; awful, 
dreadful for multitude, as if the whole mountain were 
dissolving into life and light, and with an unearthly 
kind of lament, took up their line of march in every 
direction off to sea. 

The sight startled the people on board the steamer, 
who had often witnessed it before, and for some 



40 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS'. 

minutes there ensued a general silence. For our own 
part, we were quite amazed and overawed at the 
spectacle. We had seen nothing like it before. We 
had seen White Mountain Notches and Niagara Falls 
in our own land, and the vastness of the wide and 
deep ocean, which was separating us from it. We had 
seen something of art's magnificence in the old world; 
its cloud-capped towers, gorgeous palaces and solemn 
temples, but we had never witnessed sublimity to be 
compared to that rising of sea-birds from Ailsa Craig. 
They were of countless varieties in kind and size, 
from the largest goose to the smallest marsh bird, and 
of every conceivable variety of dismal note. Off they 
moved in wild and alarmed route, like a people going 
into exile, filling the air far and wide, with their 
reproachful lament at the wanton cruelty that had 
broken them up and driven them into captivity. We 
really felt remorse at it ; and the thought might have 
occurred to us how easy it would have been for them, 
if they had known that the little, smoking speck that 
was laboring along the sea-surface beneath them had 
been the cause of their banishment, to have settled 
down upon it and engulfed it out of sight forever. 
We felt astonished that we had never heard before 
of this wonderful haunt of sea-fowl, and that no one 
had ever written a book upon it. It struck us really 
as one of the wonders of the world. And not us 
alone. Others, not at all given to the marvellous, 
declared it surpassed everything they had ever before 
witnessed. We supposed the mountain must have 
been quite deserted from the myriads that had flown 
away ; but lifting the glass to it, as we were 
leaving its border, we were appalled to find it 
still alive with the myriads that were left behind. 
They kept leaving and leaving until our steamer 
got far beyond the Craig, and till we could no 
longer discern their departure with the tele- 
SCOpe. And it was miles off into the dusky Irish 
Sea, before we saw the ebbing of their mighty move- 
ment, and that they were beginning to return. We 
felt relieved to see them going back. It had scarcely 
occurred to us in our surprise, that they were not 



NATHANIKI. PEABODY ROGERS. 41 

leaving their native cliffs forever. Slowly and sadly 
they seemed to return, while the eye sought in vain 
to ken the outskirts of their mighty caravan. And 
Ailsa Craig' had sunk far into our rear, and quite 
sensibly diminished in the distance, before the rear- 
in* 1st of the feathered host had disappeared from our 
sight. 

The excitement occasioned us considerable depres- 
sion of spirits, from which we were not entirely 
relieved until night came down upon the St. George's 
Channel, and the protracted northern twilight could 
no longer disclose objects to our wearied vision. 
Then after refreshing ourselves with some substantial 
confectionery, with which dear George Thompson had 
kindly stuffed our pockets from a shop at Greenock, 
before leaving "the land of cakes," our beloved fellow- 
passenger and ourself, after sundry fond remem- 
brances of the other side of the ocean, some expecta- 
tions of next day's greeting in Dublin, and some 
grateful sense, as we trust, of the goodness that had 
not forgotten us amid all our dangers by sea and 
land, we forgot what we had seen, and whereabouts 
we were, in the arms of oblivious sleep." 

To do justice to the memory of Nathaniel Peabody 
Rogers, to his character and work, would require 
genius and inspiration like his own. Nor, perhaps, 
would this cheap age even then understand nor com- 
prehend it. It manufactures sham and shoddy at too 
many of its mills, political, literary, social, moral and 
religious. It quotes Pope and Burns about an 
" honest man," but seems not to know him when he 
comes. It celebrated the birthday of Robert Burns 
with much pomp and demonstration in less than one 
month after it hung John Brown for a heroism and 
devotion to freedom and humanity, which began, 
rekindled with divine fervor, where the zeal of 
LaFayette for a white man's liberty paled out of 
human sight. And socially, morally and religiously 
it had hung Rogers long before, in the same 



42 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

persecuting spirit that burned his illustrious ancestor 
in the Smithfield pyre. In the true spirit of martyr- 
dom did Rogers, like John Brown, join the anti- 
slavery movement in an hour of peril. Garrison had 
been mobbed in Boston, as was said, " in broad day, 
by Boston's best men in broadcloth, gentlemen of 
property and standing ; " driven from a female 
anti-slavery concert of prayer which he had been 
invited to attend and address. Mr. Garrison said of 
the spectacle when all the streets near the place of 
meeting were thronged with a mob burning with 
murderous intent : " It was an awful, sublime and 
soul-thrilling scene — enough, one would suppose, to 
melt adamantine hearts, and make even fiends of 
darkness stagger and retreat. Indeed the clear, 
untremulous voice of that christian heroine, Miss 
Parker, in prayer occasionally awed the ruffians into 
silence, and she was heard distinctly, even in the 
midst of their hisses and yells and curses." Garri- 
son withdrew from the prayer meeting and the mayor 
entered in obedience to the wishes of the fiendish 
crew, and dispersed it. Then the cry, the shriek, 
the yell was, " we must have Garrison." " Out with 
him ! Lynch him ! " Some of the rioters discovered 
and seized him. They drew him furiously to a 
window and were about to thrust him out, when one 
of them relented and said, " Let us not kill him out- 
right." But they coiled a rope about his body, nearly 
stripped him of his clothing, then dragged him 
through the streets till he was finally rescued by posse 
comitatus and at frightful peril was at length got to 
the mayor's office. There he was provided with 
clothing and from thence sent to jail, as " a disturber 
of the peace," the mayor and his advisers declaring 
that "the only way to preserve his life" In Alton, 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 43 

Rev. Elijah Parish Lovejoy, too, another anti- 
slavery editor, had been shot and killed by a mob, 
five bullets being taken from his body, three from his 
breast, and that, too, in 1837, only a few months 
before Mr. Rogers removed with his family to Con- 
cord to conduct the Herald of Freedom. So that in 
assuming such position, he also, as might be said, 
" took his life in his hand." For Concord itself was 
no stranger to the mob at that time and for years 
afterward was the consecrated guardian of slavery. 

As a member of the Plymouth Congregational 
church, both Mr. and Mrs. Rogers had cooperated 
earnestly, faithfully in works of religious benevolence 
and charity. But when they demanded that those in 
bonds in their own country should be remembered 
even ''as bound with them," they were repulsed as 
disorderly, contumacious disturbers of the peace 
of the church and its minister, who, at that 
time, was among the most virulent opposers of the 
whole anti-slavery enterprise. But they did not 
withdraw from their church connection till they saw 
that southern slaveholders were more welcome to the 
pulpit and sacramental table, than were faithful, 
devoted abolitionists, whose .moral and religious 
integrity of character, as well as soundness of opin- 
ion, were above reproach or suspicion. Rogers, 
beyond most public men, ever had unshaken faith in 
the people, though conservative while a politician, and 
orthodox in his religious faith. When he left the 
church he investigated its character anew and for 
himself. The claims of the clergy to prerogative in 
things temporal as well as spiritual, he soon learned 
to hold in profound disesteem. To no one man then 
living, or who has appeared since, does the world owe 
more than to him for exposing and rebuking the 



44 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

arrogance and insolence, not to say down-right fraud 
and dishonesty, of a ministry whose ruling, directing 
power in all the great popular demonstrations of the 
land, north as well as south, was exerted in support 
and sanctification of slavery. The exceptions to this 
charge were too few to change the result, as will 
appear in the progress of this work. 

Mr. Rogers never doubted for a moment that the 
people, w T ell and wisely taught, would abolish slavery 
and cease to oppress one another. And so like the 
Great Emancipator of Nazareth, he directed all his 
sternest strokes and rebukes at the priests and 
rulers, who really " bound the heavy burdens and laid 
them on men's shoulders," as in Judea, two thousand 
years ago. He and his associates of the Garrison 
school of abolitionists relied solely on the power of 
moral and spiritual truth to rescue the slave as well 
as to redeem and save the world. They formed, they 
joined no political party. They abjured the ballot 
altogether as a reforming or restoring agency, as 
much as they did the bullet, the only specie redemp- 
tion of the ballot, in every government of force. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were members and officers 
of the New England Non-Resistance Society. And 
none ever more highly adorned the doctrine of their 
profession than they. 

As one with vision anointed to perceive all moral 
and spiritual truth, Rogers seemed to stand almost 
alone. His editorial writings are witness to this, and 
will be to more than the next generation. It were 
well for man and womankind, if whole volumes of 
them, judiciously selected, could be reproduced and 
scattered everywhere, like the shining constellation 
among the dimmer stars. His words to-day are, 
many of them, wondrously fresh and new. 



NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 45 

The temperance cause had no firmer or more con- 
sistent friend. The peace societies had best of 
reasons to be proud of his support, in word and deed. 
To him human life was sacred as the life of God. 
Once, at a grand Peace gathering, it was strenuously 
argued by most of the members who spoke, that 
human life could and should be taken by divine com- 
mand. And the president of the society himself 
made an argument in defence of all the slaughters 
of the Canaanites and other tribes and peoples, men, 
women and children, by Moses, Joshua and their 
destroying hosts, because perpetrated by command of 
God. It was at one of the last meetings Rogers ever 
attended, and he was then too feeble to bear an 
active part in the deliberations. But after listening a 
good while to scripture text and learned logic under 
Levitical law, he rose to his feet and in low voice 
asked : " Does our brother yonder say that if God 
commanded him, he would take a sword and use it in 
slaying human beings, and innocent, helpless human 
beings ? "Yes, if God commanded," was the answer. 
"Well, I wouldn't," responded Rogers, and sank 
back into his seat, amid loud cheers of evident 
approval and admiration. 

Woman, to him, was in all rights, privileges and 
prerogatives, the full equal of man. He was a 
christian in the divinest, sublimest sense of that still 
mysterious and much abused word. And as such his 
kingdom was not of this world. And so he could 
neither vote in, nor ask others to vote in nor to fight 
for any government based on military power. 

As husband and father, none ever knew one in 
whom his family were more supremely felicitated. 
As companion and friend, blessed and happy were all 
those who enjoyed his confidence and esteem. Gentle, 



46 NATHANIEL PEABODY ROGERS. 

simple, tender, kind, ready to sacrifice his own com- 
fort ; sharing on occasion, like General Washington, 
his room and bed with a colored man, and yet always 
discriminating in high degree ; with tastes most 
refined ; ever ready to criticise, even censure a 
friend, however dear, when he deemed it just and 
demanded ; firm as his own Ailsa Craig, whenever or 
wherever, or however a moral principal was in 
jeopardy ; running over with music, poetry, and 
culture of every kind, he was a man, the like of whom 
the world has seldom seen — may not soon see again. 



CHAPTER III. 

SLAVERY— AS IT WAS. 

Everybody now is anti-slavery. It is honorable 
now to be a child of the man who "cast the first 
anti-slavery vote in our town ;" or called "our first 
anti-slavery meeting ;" or first entertained Garrison 
as guest, or Abby Kelley, or Frederick Douglass ; or 
rescued Stephen Foster or Lucy Stone from the hands 
of a ferocious mob ; or raised, or commanded the 
first company of colored troops in the war of Rebel- 
lion, at the time when not a musical band could be 
found in the whole city of New York to play for a 
colored regiment, as it marched from the New Haven 
Railway station to the steamer at the foot of Canal 
street to embark for the seat of war ! " Paid pipers" 
the venerable Dr. Tyng with withering scorn 
called them all on the same evening in Cooper Insti- 
tute, where he presided at a lecture by George William 
Curtis. "Paid pipers," with wind too immaculate to 
blow away in escort of a gallant battalion of our 
country's saviors, when there was no other name under 
heaven given among men," whereby the nationality 
could be saved but the negro name ; despised as he 
was and rejected of men; "a man of sorrows" and 
acquainted all his dreary life with grief ! Everybody 
now is an abolitionist, or son, or grandson of an anti- 
slavery parentage, and so all seem to claim equal 
honor, so far as honor is due, for ridding the world of 
the sublimest scourge and curse that ever afflicted the 
human race. 



48 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

Few now, however, have much conception of what 
slavery was ; or what was genuine, effective anti- 
slavery, when slavery sat supreme "on its throne of 
skulls," and ruled the whole nation, state, church and 
school, literature, trade, commerce, manufactures and 
agriculture, as with rod of iron ! And its first 
command, great command, only command was, 
"Thou shalt have no god but me." Not, as from 
Mount Sinai, "no other gods before me," but no other 
god. Not " no other gods before me," but " no other 
gods with, or above or below me !" So it was. Anti- 
slavery then, was more than a name ; more than pro- 
fession ; or denomination in religion ; or party in the 
government. So Christianity had mighty meanings 
when the great apostle to the Gentiles wrote : " I am 
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." And " I deter- 
mined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ 
and him crucified." It had fearful meanings when the 
gardens of Nero were illumined with the burning 
bodies of martyred saints, both men and women, young 
and old ! When to name the Christ of God was 
death in lingering torments — when crucifixions were 
so multiplied that, as in grim epigram it was said, 
" space was wanted for crosses, and crosses for chris- 
tians." And yet so sublime was christian heroism at 
that hour, that it could have well been added, but 
christains are never wanting for crosses. * 

But what was our slave system, that so many now 
proudly claim to have aided to destroy ? And whose 
fathers and mothers were those who really did bear 
active, effective part in the thirty years moral and 
peaceful conflict, inaugurated by Garrison with 
"sword of the spirit ; " whose only weapons were 

" The mild arms of truth and love, 
Made mighty through the living God ? " 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 49 

Or whose sons and brothers rushed at last to the 
field of mortal combat, and fought the bloodiest, 
mightiest, everyway, most frightful war, that has 
shaken the earth and darkened the skies in all the 
christian years ? Slavery! What is it ? What was it 
on the American plantation ? " Peculiar Institution," 
some called it. " Patriarchal Institution," others ! 
But what was it? All language pales and is silent in 
its dread presence. Slave-holding! "Deed without 
a name ! " In cant phrase we said slavery degrades 
man to the brute, sinks woman to the dead level of 
the horse. And then who knows the height and 
depth, the length and breadth of those stunning 
words ; insulting blasphemies against the Holy Spirit 
of Humanity ! Let one advertisement, distributed by 
large handbills, as well as published in the daily news- 
papers of New Orleans, aid the imagination : 

RAFFLE. Mr. Joseph Jennings respectfully informs his friends and 
the public that, at the request of many acquaintances, he has been 
induced to purchase from Mr. Osborne, of Missouri, the celebrated DARK 
BAY HOR>E, " STAR," aged five years, square trotter and warranted 
sound ; with a new, light Trotting- Buggy and Harness: Also the dark, 
stout Mulatto Girl, " Sarah," aged about twenty years, general house 
servant, valued at nine hundred do//ars, and guaranteed : and will be 
RAFFLED for at four o'clock p. m., February first, at the selection hotel 
of the subscribers. The above is as represented, and those persons who 
may wish to engage in the usual practice of raffling will, I assure them, be 
perfectly satisfied with their destiny in this affair. 

The whole is valued at its just worth, fifteen hundred dollars ; fifteen 
hundred CHANCES at One Dollar each. The Raffle will be conducted 
by gentlemen selected by the interested subscribers present. Five nights 
will be allowed to complete the Raffle. Both of the above described can be 
seen at my store, No. 78 Common street, second door from Camp, at from 
nine o'clock, a. m., to two p. in. 

Highest throw to take the first choice; the lowest throw the remaining 
prize, and the fortunate winners will pay Twenty Dollars each for the 
refreshments furnished on the occasion. 

N. B. No chances recognized unless paid for previous to the commence- 
ment. JOSEPH JENNINGS. 

In the light of a spectacle like this, it is possible to 
fancy slightly what should be understood when it is 
said that slavery degrades human beings to the plane 
of brute beasts. 

Or reverse the order of illustration, if we dare, and 
imagine a brute beast raised to the dignity and honor, 



5<0 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

the privilege and prerogative of a man, an immortal 
being. History or fable tells us of a Roman Sovereign 
who made a favorite horse first Consul of the Empire. 
Such mockery might have been. But suppose in a 
christian country, in a christian sanctuary, it were 
proposed to admit, not a horse, but some dogs into 
full fellowship and communion with the church. It is 
on a delightful Sunday of early summer, in a pleasant 
New England country town. The village gardens are 
already abloom with early flowers, the orchards are 
white with prophecy of abundant fruit, and every tree 
is an orchestra of cheerful birds, whose worship-notes 
almost charm the Sabbath silence into sweet accord 
with the songs of paradise. All the village and the 
districts around assemble at their, to them, " house of 
God." At the appointed hour, the baptized commu- 
nicants of the accepted faith are invited to seats at 
the sacramental board. The unregenerate of the con- 
gregation retire to the outer seats, paying silent but 
respectful attention. The first scene in the solemn 
service is admission of new members, who are invited 
forward to the altar. There, in presence of the con- 
gregation, they listen and bow silent assent to the 
Articles of Faith and the Covenant Vows, and receive 
the seal of baptism, in the name of the triune God. 
Solemn and impressive as this may be, it may excite 
no unusual emotions, being neither new nor infre- 
quent. But slavery, we used to say with lip only, 
" degrades man and woman to a level with the 
brutes;" puts the "bay horse, Star," and the "Mu- 
latto girl, Sarah," into the same raffle, or on the same 
auction-block. Now change the order. Elevate the 
brutes to the place of immortal beings at the baptismal 
font and sacramental table. Whistle up two or three 
doa:s and solemnlv read over to them the creed and 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 5 I 

covenant, and sprinkle them with the holy drops of 
baptism, calling them by their appropriate brute 
names, " Lion, I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Tiger, 
I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And let the third be a 
female: "Topsy, I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
Amen." 

Let such a spectacle be enacted on a delightful 
summer Sunday afternoon, in a beautiful New Eng- 
land village, in its pleasant white meeting-house, and 
at the memorial supper of that crucified Redeemer in 
whom the church and its pastor devoutly believed, 
and through whom they humbly hoped for salvation. 
Can the effect on the beholders of such a daring spec- 
tacle be described, or even imagined ? As well, but 
no better, attempt a description of that slavery which 
truly did degrade human beings to a level with horses 
and with dogs. This whole scene was once supposed 
as illustration, in the days of slavery, in just such town 
and house of worship as here described, and not only 
that town, but the pulpit and religious press of both 
the hemispheres almost shrieked as with holy horror at 
what they called so audacious, so diabolical blasphemy. 
And the cry came up from near and far for imme- 
diate punishment of him who had so illumined slavery, 
to the fullest demand of the statute, which was long 
confinement, it was held, in the State prison ! But 
one thing was made clear. The words, Slavery 
degrades man to a level with beasts, were seen and 
felt as perhaps never before. The congregation where 
the illustration was presented saw and solemnly felt 
that from beasts up to men — to men exalted to angelic 
heights — was no farther than those deeps down which 



52 SALVERV AS IT WAS. 

immortal man is plunged, to reach the level of the 
beasts that perish. And that frightful pit was reached 
by every chattel slave ever born. 

But the question, What was American slavery ? is 
not yet answered. To call it robbery, by only our dic- 
tionary definition, would pay it high compliment. Its 
fell work began where all ordinary robbery leaves off. 
John Wesley saw it and pronounced it, " Sum of all 
villainies." And if he did not pronounce the slave 
holder sum of all villains, he did address him in words 
like these : 

What I have said to slave-traders, equally concerns 
all slave-holders, of whatever rank and degree, seeing 
man-buyers are exactly on a level with man-stealers. 
You say, I pay honestly for my goods, and am not 
concerned to know they are honestly come by. Nay, 
but you are. * * * You know they are not 
honestly come by ; you know they are procured by 
means nothing near so innocent as picking pockets, 
house-breaking, or robbery on the highway. You 
know they are procured by a deliberate species of 
more complicated villainy, of fraud, robbery and mur- 
der, than was ever practiced by Mohammedans or 
Pagans ; in particular, by murders of all kinds ; by the 
blood of the innocent poured upon the ground like 
water. Now it is your money that pays the African 
butcher. You, therefore, are principally guilty of all 
these frauds, robberies and murders. You are the 
spring that puts all the rest in motion. They would 
not stir a step without you : therefore the blood of all 
these wretches who die before their time lies upon 
your head. " The blood of thy brother crieth against 
thee from the earth." O, whatever it costs, put a stop 
to its cry before it be too late ; instantly, at any price, 
were it the half of your goods, deliver thyself from 
blood-guiltiness ! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, 
thy house, and thy lands, at present are stained with 
blood. Surely it is enough ; accumulate no more 
guilt; spill no more the blood of the innocent. Do 
not hire another to shed blood ; do not pay him for 



SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 53 

doing it. Whether you are a Christian or not, show 
yourself a man ! Be not more savage than a lion or 
a bear. 

Slavery is not robbery therefore, because it is so 
much more, and worse. Indeed, to rob man of man- 
hood, and beastialize him down with not only animals, 
but the dead matter on which brutes feed and tread, 
makes any farther spoliation simply impossible. 

Or shall we pronounce American slavery adultery, 
wholesale, unblushing adultery? If not, it must be 
because, as with robbery, it was something so much 
worse. For, first, what is adultery but setting aside 
all rights, privileges and responsibilities, human and 
divine, of both the marriage and parental relations ? 
Slavery knew no more of marriage and parentage 
among slaves than among swine. Logically, as well 
as legally, it could not. And the statutes and court 
decisions so declared. 

But such abomination had not only state sanction, 
but church sanctification as well. Judge Birney, of 
Kentucky, once a slavediolder, in his memorable tract 1 
entitled : " The American Churches the Bulwarks of j 
American Slavery," second edition, revised by the 
author, cites this instance : 

In J &35 the following query referring to slaves was 
presented to the Savannah River Baptist Association i 
of Ministers : " Whether in case of involuntary sepa- I 
ration of such a character as to preclude all prospect 
of future intercourse, the parties ought to be allowed 
to marry again." 

The following was the answer : 

* * Such separation among persons situated as 
are our slaves, is civilly a separation by death. And 
we believe that in the sight of God, it would be so 
viewed ! * * * The slaves are not free 
agents, and a dissolution by death is not more entirely 
without their consent and beyond their control than by 
such separation. 



54 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

James G. Birney was at one time a slave-holder as 
well as judge in the courts, and a ruling elder in 
the Presbyterian church. He was induced to emanci- 
pate his slaves, as well as to provide for their future 
support, taking them over into the free state of Ohio 
for that purpose, by the faithful and earnest argument 
and appeal of Theodore D. Weld, an early, eloquent 
and everyway most efficient apostle and laborer in the 
anti-slavery field. Washing his own hands from the 
blood and guilt of slave holding, Judge Birney set 
himself to the work of abolishing the foul system. 
Among his first endeavors was an attempt to purify 
the churches, beginning with his own. But neither his 
official standing in both state and church, nor his high 
consequent social status availed to shield him from 
every possible indignity and outrage at the hands of 
infuriated mobs, composed largely sometimes of mem- 
bers of the churches. Driven from Kentucky he 
removed to Ohio. His descent on Cincinnati, where he 
had now become known, was a signal to waken all the 
vengeance of both church and state against him. 
Meetings were at once called, " to see if the people 
will permit abolition papers to be published in this 
city." At the first meeting the postmaster, who was 
also a minister, presided. A committee of thirteen, 
all eminent citizens, and eight of them church mem- 
bers, was appointed to wait on Mr. Birney and assure 
him that his paper must stop, or the meeting would 
not be responsible for the consequences of its continu- 
ance. The chairman of the committee declared that 
" if the paper were not promptly suspended, a mob, 
unusual in numbers, determined in purpose, and deso- 
lating in its ravages, would be inevitable !" All of 
which proved true, for the paper did not stop. In the 
darkness of midnight the mob entered and carried 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 55 

press, types and all else of contents and sunk them in 
the Ohio river. And twice afterwards was the same 
outrage perpetrated. No wonder Mr. Burney enti- 
tled his memorable tract, published at the time, " The 
American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery." 
For the title was more than justified on every subse- 
quent page, as will hereafter be made to appear. And 
the word of divine truth uttered by Mr. Weld, and the 
baptism of fire and water three times administered by 
the fiendish mob, with full approval of state, church and 
pulpit, were sufficient consecration of the author of 
the memorable tract to his subsequent anti-slavery 
ministry and apostleship. 

But returning to the argument. Not only was slavery 
adultery, as sanctified and committed by the churches, 
in thus sundering all marriage rights and responsibili- 
ties ; it was legally and in solemn compact annihila- 
tion of human marriage and parentage. The court 
decisions contained sentiments such as these : " With 
consent of their masters, slaves may marry ; but in a 
state of slavery it can produce no civil effect, because 
slaves are deprived of all civil rights." [Judge Mat- 
thews, of Louisiana.] Attorney-General Delany, of 
Maryland, held that slaves would not be admonished 
for incontinence, or punished for adultery or forni- 
cation ; or prosecuted for petty treason, or for killing 
a husband, being a slave. The code of Louisiana 
declared, "a slave could not contract matrimony. 
The association which takes place among slaves, and 
is called marriage, being properly designated contuber- 
nium, a relation without sanctity, and to which no civil 
rights adhere." So the plain, unquestionable fact was, 
slavery was wholesale, legalized, sanctified concubin- 
age, or adultery, from first to last. Our government 
was based on the prostrate bodies, souls and civil, 



56 SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 

social, marital, parental, educational, moral and relig- 
ious rights of half a million of immortal beings. In 
three-quarters of a century their numbers multiplied till 
at the downfall of the institution there were four mil- 
lions, and not one legal marriage ever existed in all 
their generations ! And yet, compelled by law thus 
to live and herd like brute beasts, hundreds of thou- 
sands of them were admitted to baptism and sacramen- 
tal communion and fellowship in all the great evan- 
gelical denominations in the land ! 

One other attribute of the dreadful system remains 
to be exposed, and that was murder. Under the writ- 
ten law of slavery, more than seventy offences, when 
committed by slaves, were punishable with death. One 
law read, " if any slave shall presume to strike any 
white person, such slave may be lawfully killed." Of 
course killed on the spot. A woman or girl would 
have been killed (undoubtedly many were killed) for 
defending her person against the lustful attack of her 
overseer or other white assailant. 

Special laws existed for recapturing escaped slaves 
at any cost of life to the victims, by first proclaiming 
them outlaws. The following legal instrument with 
its accompaniments will suffice to show the way : 

State of North Carolina, ) 
Lenoir County. ) 

Whereas, complaint hath been this day made to us, two of the Justices 
of the Peace for the said county, by William D. Cobb, of Jones county, 
that two negro slaves belonging to him, named Ben (commonly known by 
the name of Ben Fox) and Rigdon, have absented themselves from their 
said master's service, and are lurking about in the counties of Lenoir and 
Jones, committing acts of felony ;— these are, in the name of the Stale, to 
command the said slaves forthwith to surrender themselves, and return 
home to their said master. And we do hereby, by virtue of an act of the 
Assembly of this State, concerning servants and slaves, intimate and de- 
clare, if the said slaves do not surrender themselves and return home to 
their master immediately after the publication of these presents, that any 
person may kill and destroy said slaves by such means as lie or they think 
fit , without accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so 
doing-, or without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby. 
Given under our hands and seals, this 12th day of November, 1836. 

B. COLEMAN, J. P. [Seal.] 
JAMES JONES, J. P. [Seal.J 



SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 57 

Two Hundred Dollars Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, a 
certain negro man named Ben, (commonly known by the name of Ben Fox). 
Also, one other negro, by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on the 8th of 
this month. 

I will give the reward of one hundred dollars for each of the above 
negroes, to be delivered to me or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones 
county, or for the killing of them , so that I can see tlieiu. 

November 12, 1836. W. D. COBB. 

Another advertisement, from the Sumpter County 
(Alabama) Whig, will illustrate the methods of slave 
hunting in other States besides North Carolina : 

^TEGRO DOGS. — The undersigned having bought the entire pack of 
\ NEGRO DOGS of the Hay & Allen stock, he now proposes to catch 
runaway negroes. His charge will be three dollars a day for hunting, and 
fifteen dollars for catching a runaway. He resides three and one-half 
miles north of Livingston, near the lower Jones' Bluff road. 

November 6, 1845. WM. GAMBEL. 

The New York Commercial- Advertiser of June 8th, 
1827, contained the following item of news, not uncom- 
mon at that time, as the irresponsibility of slave-holders 
over the lives of their slaves had hardly been ques- 
tioned : 

Hunting Men with Dogs. — A negro who had 
absconded from his master, and for whom a reward 
of a hundred dollars was offered, has been appre- 
hended and committed to prison in Savannah. 

The editor who states the fact adds, with as much 
coolness as though there were no barbarity in the 
matter, that he did not surrender till he was consider- 
ably maimed by the dogs that had been set on him — 
desperately fighting them, and badly cutting one of 
them with a sword. 

The St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle of February 
1st, 1839, reports a slave-hunt after this sort : 

Two or three days ago a gentleman of this parish, in 
hunting runaway negroes, came upon a camp of them 
in the swamp on Cat Island. He succeeded in arrest- 
ing two of them, but the third made fight. On being 
shot in the shoulder, he fled to a sluice, where the 
dogs succeeded in drowning him before assistance 
could arrive. 

Had " assistance' arrived," would it have been ten- 
dered to the dogs or their victim ? is a question, to 

s 



58 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

this day. But calling off the dogs altogether, let the 
subject be illumined a little farther with lights like 
this, from the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, in 1825. 

TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.— Ran away from the subscriber, on 
the 14th instant, a negro girl named Molly. She is 16 or 17 years of age, 
slim made, lately branded on her left cheek, thus, " R," and a piece 

IS TAKEN OFF HER EAR ON THE SAME SIDE ; THE SAME LETTER IS BRANDED ON 
THE INSIDE OF BOTH HER LEGS. 

ABNER ROSS, Fairfield District, S. C. 

True, the killing is here omitted, possibly by acci- 
dent, but if such an atrocity does not involve murder, 
sublimated, what shall be said of this from the Wil- 
mington (N. C.) Advertiser of July 13th, 1838? 

RANAWAY— MY NEGRO MAN, RICHARD.— A reward of twenty- 
five dollars will be paid for his apprehension, dead or alive ! Satis- 
factory proof will only be required of his being killed. He has with him, 
in all probability, his wife, Eliza, who ran awav from Colonel Thompson, 
now a resident of Alabama. 

But no more such evidences of the murderous spirit 
of slavery can be needed ; though the last advertise- 
ment suggests an incident in South Carolina, so late 
as 1844, which is too instructive and assuring not to 
be given. 

That "wife, Eliza, who ran away from Colonel 
Thompson," possibly might have a tale unfolded, 
whose lightest word would have harrowed up the soul. 
There were many such tales. A young man in South 
Carolina was seen walking with a young woman, a 
slave, to whom it was known he was tenderly attached, 
and whom, it was farther shown, he married and 
aided to escape from slavery. That was his crime. 
He was arrested, tried i and found guilty. Sentence 
of death was pronounced upon him by Judge J. B. 
O'Neale, in word and spirit as now reproduced : 

John L. Brown — It is my duty to announce to you 
the consequences of the conviction which you heard 
at Winnsboro', and of the opinion you have just 
heard read, refusing your two-fold motion in arrest 
of judgment for a new trial. 

You are to die ! To die an ignominious death — 
the death on the gallows ! This announcement is, to 



SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 59 

you, I know, most appalling. Little did you dream of 
it when you stepped into the bar with an air as if you 
thought it was a fine frolic. But the consequences of 
crime are just such as you are realizing. Punishment 
often comes when it is least expected. Let me 
entreat you to take the present opportunity to com- 
mence the work of reformation. Time will be fur- 
nished you to prepare for the great change just before 
you. Of your past life I know nothing, except what 
your trial furnished. That told me that the crime for 
which you are to suffer was the consequence of a 
want of attention on your part to the duties of life. 
The strange woman snared you. She flattered you 
with her words, and you became her victim. The 
consequence was, that, led on by a desire to serve her, ■ 
you committed the offense of aiding a slave to run 
away and depart from her master's service ; and now, 
for it you are to die ! 

You are a young man, and I fear you have been 
dissolute ; and -if so, these kindred vices have con- 
tributed a full measure to your ruin. Reflect on your 
past life, and make the only useful devotion of the 
remnant of your days in preparing for death. 

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth, is the language of inspired wisdom. This 
comes home appropriately to you in this trying mo- 
ment. 

You are young ; quite too young to be where you 
are. If you had remembered your Creator in your past 
days, you would not now be in a felon's place, to receive 
a felon's judgment. Still', it is not too late to remem- 
ber your Creator. He calls early, and He calls late. 
He stretches out the arms of a Father's love to you — ■ 
to the vilest sinner — and says : " Come unto me and 
be saved." You can perhaps, read. If so, read the 
Scriptures ; read them without note, and without com- 
ment ; and pray to God for His assistance ; and you 
will be able to say when you pass from prison to exe- 
cution, as a poor slave said under similar circum- 
stances : "I am glad my Friday has come." If you 
cannot read the Scriptures, the ministers of our holy 
religion will be ready to aid you. They will read and 



60 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

explain to you until you will be able to understand ; 
and understanding, to call upon the only One who 
can help you and save you- — Jesus Christ, the Lamb 
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. To 
Him I commend you. And through Him may you 
have that opening of the Day-Spring of mercy from 
on high, which shall bless you here, and crown you as 
a saint in an everlasting world, forever and ever. 

The sentence of the law is that you be taken hence 
to the place from whence you came last ; thence to 
the jail of Fairfield District ; and that there you be 
closely and securely confined until Friday, the 26th 
day of April next ; on which day, between the hours 
of ten in the forenoon and two in the afternoon, you 
will be taken to the place of public execution, and 
there be hanged by the neck till your body be dead. 
And may God have mercy on your soul ! 

No event in anti-slavery history up to that time so 
stirred the two hemispheres as did this frightful sen- 
tence of Judge O'Neale. Even in the British House of 
Lords, two illustrious members, Brougham and Den- 
man, gave it pathetic and powerful consideration. 
One London journal said: "The dreadful case of 
John L. Brown has created throughout Great Britain, 
a sensation of deepest and most painful character. 
Addresses to the churches in South Carolina have 
been extensively signed by the independent churches 
in England and Scotland." 

The Glasgow Argus, among the most important 
journals of Scotland, twice published the Charge on 
account of its fearful character, and said of it, "we 
know of nothing more atrocious in the judicial annals 
of modern times. * * And what are we 

to think of a judge, who in passing sentence for what 
in our country, our land of Freedom, would be looked 
upon as a praiseworthy act, invokes the sacred name 
of Deity and the Holy Book of Inspiration as lending 
sanction to the atrocity about to be committed!" 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 6 1 

But perhaps the most imposing movement in Great 
Britain, on this terrible perversion of all justice, as 
well as outrage on all decency, humanity and charity, 
was a " Memorial addressed to the Churches of Christ 
in South Carolina, as representing those of other states," 
signed by more than thirteen hundred ministers 
and office-holders in the churches and other benevo- 
lent associations of London, and other portions of the 
kingdom, in solemn protest against it. But it need 
hardly be told, that all the sympathy felt, all the effort 
made, all the appeals and memorials sent, eloquent, 
tender, pathetic, devout as many, if not all of them 
were, seemed almost wholly thrown away on the press, 
pulpit, and vast majority of the people of the United 
States, even though South Carolina did yield to 
foreign pressure at last, and commuted the sentence to 
fifty lashes on the bare back ; and even they were 
said to have been remitted on condition that the 
young man quit the state forever. 

But this account though already extended, would* 
not be complete unless the feelings excited in the 
hearts of the American Abolitionists, in view of the 
whole scene, could have utterance. Let then their 
favorite and faithful poet, Whittier, be their oracle : 

ON THE SENTENCE OF JOHN L. BROWN. 

Ho ! thou who seekest late and long 

A License from the Holy Book 
For brutal lust and hellish wrong, 

Man of the Pulpit, look ! 
Lift up those cold and atheist eyes, 

This ripe fruit of thy teaching see ; 
And tell us how to heaven will rise 

The incense of this sacrifice — 
This blossom of the gallows tree ' 

Search out for slavery's hour of need 

Some fitting text of sacred writ ; 
Give heaven the credit of a deed 

Which shames the nether pit. 



62 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

Kneel, smooth blasphemer, unto Him 

Whose truth is on thy lips a lie- 
Ask that His bright winged cherubim 
May bend around that scaffold grim 
To guard and bless and sanctify. 

Ho ! champion of the people's cause- 
Suspend thy loud and vain rebuke 

Of foreign wrong and Old World's laws- 
Man of the Senate, look ! 

Was this the promise of the free. 
The great hope of our early time — 

That slavery's poison vine should be 

Upborne by Freedom's prayer-nurs'd tree 

O'erclustered with such fruits of crime? 

Send out the summons East and West, 

And South and North, let all be there 
Where he who pitied the oppressed 

Swings out in sun and air. 
Let not a Democratic hand 

The grisly hangman's task refuse ; 
There let each loyal patriot stand, 

Awaiting slavery's command, 
To twist the rope and draw the noose ! 

But vain is irony — unmeet 

Its cold rebuke for deeds which start 
In fiery and indignant beat 

The pulses of the heart. 
Leave studied wit and guarded phrase 

For those who think but do not feel — 
Let men speak out in words which raise 

Where'er they fall, an answering biaze 
Like flints which strike the fire from steel. 

Still let a mousing priesthood ply 

Their garbled text and gloss of sin, 
And make the lettered scroll deny 

Its living soul within : 
Still let the place-fed, titled knave 

Plead robbery's right with purchased lips, 
And tell us that our fathers gave 

For Freedom's pedestal, a slave, 
The frieze and moulding, chains and whips ! 

But ye who own that Higher Law 
Whose tablets in the heart are set, 

Speak out in words of power and awe 
That God is living vet ! 

Breathe forth once more those tones sublime 
Which thrilled the burdened prophet's lyre, 



SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 63 

And in a dark and evil time 

Smote down on Israel's fast of crime 
And gift of blood, a rain of fire ! 

Oh, not for us the graceful lay 

To whose soft measures lightly move 
The Dryad and the woodland fay, 

O'er-locked by mirth and love ! 
But such a stern and startling strain 

As Britain's hunted bards flung down 
From Snowden to the conquered plain. 

Where harshly clanked the Saxon chain, 
On trampled field and smoking town. 

By Liberty's dishonored name. 

By man's lost hope and failing trust. 
By words and deeds which bow with shame 

Our foreheads to the dust ; 
By the exulting Tyrant's sneer, 

Borne to us from the Old World's thrones, 
And by his victims' griefs who hear, 

In sunless mines and dungeons drear. 
How Freedom's land her faith disowns ! 

Speak out in 'acts, the time for words 
Has passed ; and deeds alone suffice ; 
. In the loud clang of meeting swords 
The softer music dies ! 
Act — act in God's name, while ye may ! 

Smite from the church, her leprous limb ! 
Throw open to the light of day 

The bondman's cell, and break away 
The chains the state has bound on him ! 

Ho ! every true and living soul, 

To Freedom's perilled altar bear 
The Freeman's and the Christian's whole 

Tongue, pen, and vote, and prayer ! 
One last, great battle for the right — 

One short, sharp struggle to be free ! 
To do is to succeed — our fight 

Is waged in Heaven's approving sight ; 
The smile of God is Victory." 

Severity of punishments inflicted on slaves short of 
death, were often a thousand times more cruel than 
death by the halter ; not unfrequently terminating in 
death, though only by whipping. But hanging was 
not always severe enough, as witness a law of Mary- 
land, enacted in 172^ : " The slave shall first have the 



64 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

right hand cut off, then be hanged in the usual man- 
ner ; the head be severed from the body, the body 
divided into four quarters, and the head and quarters 
be set up in the most public places of the county where 
such act was committed." And this horrible bar- 
barity could be inflicted by a simple justice's court. 

But it may be said this legislation was before the 
foundations of this republic were laid. That is true. 
But in the year 1836, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, 
an act was perpetrated, of which the following was the 
accepted newspaper account, on the spot and over the 
country : 

On the 28th of April, 1836, in the city of St. Louis, 
a black man named Mcintosh, who had stabbed an 
officer who had arrested him, was seized by the mul- 
titude, fastened to a tree in the midst of the city, wood 
piled around him, in open day, and in the presence of 
an immense throng of citizens, he was burned to 
death. The Alton Telegraph thus describes a part of 
the scene : 

All was silent as death while the executioners were 
piling the wood around the victim. He said not a 
word till he felt that the flames had seized him. He 
then uttered an awful howl, attempting to sing and 
pray, then hung his head and suffered in silence. 
After the flames had surrounded their prey, his eyes 
burned out of his head, and his mouth apparently 
parched to a cinder, some one in the crowd more com- 
passionate than the rest, proposed to end his misery 
by shooting him. But it was replied that he was 
already out of his pain. " No, no," cried the wretch, 
" I am not. I am suffering as much as ever. Shoot 
me ! Shoot me !" " No," exclaimed one of the fiends 
standing by the roasting sacrifice, " no, he shall not be 
shot. I would sooner slack the fire if that would 
increase his misery !" 

A St. Louis correspondent of a New York paper 
sent an account of the diabolical deed, of which this 
is an excerpt : 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 65 

The shrieks and groans of the victim were loud and 
piercing, and to observe one limb after another drop 
into the fire, was awful indeed. In dying, he was 
about fifteen minutes. I visited the place this morn- 
ing and saw the body, or the remains of it, burned 
to a crump. The legs and arms were gone, and only 
a part of the head and body was remaining. 

A subsequent judicial decision by judge Luke E. 
Lawless, of the Circuit Court of Missouri, made at a 
session of court in St. Louis, was, that as the burning 
of Mcintosh was the act, directly or indirectly, by 
countenance of a majority of the citizens, it is a case 
which transcends the jurisdiction of the grand jury ! 

And so the dreadful sacrament was sanctified and 
solemnized by high judicial decision. And as such 
atrocities were common while slavery lasted, why need 
the law of Maryland be shorn of its odium and terror 
in the popular apprehension, only because it was 
older than the Declaration of American Indepen- 
dence ? 

Assuming that nations are not better than their 
laws, or that laws are never made till needed, what 
shall be said of legislation like this? A law of North 
Carolina provided that : 

If any person shall wilfully kill his own slave, or 
of any other person, every such offender shall, on con- 
viction, forfeit and pay the sum of seven hundred 
pounds, and shall forever be rendered incapable of 
holding or exercising any office. 

And this law was not repealed till the year 182 1, if 
ever. Another section of the same act provided : 

If any person shall, in sudden heat of passion, or 
by undue correction, kill his own slave, or the slave of 
any other person, he shall forfeit the sum of three 
hundred and fifty pounds. 

A still further provision of the same act read thus : 

If any person shall wilfully cut out the tongue, put 
out the eye, castrate, or cruelly scald or burn any 



66 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

slave, or deprive any slave of any limb or member, or 
shall inflict any other cruel punishment, other than 
by whipping or beating with a switch, horse-whip or 
cow-skin, or by putting on irons, or imprisoning such 
slave/such person, for every such offence, shall forfeit 
and pay one hundred pounds. 

Judge Stroud, in his carefully prepared " Sketch of 
Laws Relating to Slavery," says in his latest edition, 
(1856) : "This, so far as 7 can learn, has been suf- 
fered to disgrace the statute book to the present hour. 
Amid all the mutations which Christianity has effected 
within the last century, she has not been able to con- 
quer the spirit which dictated this law." 

And not to speak of the shameful outrage, so 
denounced in Deuteronomy, xxiii ; 1st, what must 
be thought of the decency, humanity, not to say 
religion, of a people that enacts, supports, sanctifies a 
law which beats without limit, without mercy, with 
horse-whip, cowskin or other missile, a human being, 
man, woman, child, unrebuked, unless the last stroke 
should produce immediate death ? 

With one more well authenticated fact and one 
other witness, and he none other than Thomas Jeffer- 
son himself, the question as to the character of slavery 
shall be submitted to readers, to history, to posterity. 
The outrage to be described was witnessed by John 
James Appleton, Esq., whom Hon. David Lee Child 
and his illustrious wife, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, 
endorse as "a gentleman of high attainments and 
accomplishments," a secretary of legation at Rio 
Janeiro, Madrid and the Hague, commissioner at 
Naples and charge d'affaires at Stockholm. Mr. 
Appleton was present at the burial of a female slave 
in Mississippi, who had been whipped to death by her 
master, for being gone longer on an errand than was 
thought necessary. She protested under the terrible 



SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 67 

torture that she was ill and had to rest in the fields. 
To complete the climax of horror, she was delivered 
of a dead child while undergoing the punishment!! Is 
it strange that she had to rest by the way ? But we 
will hasten to our last witness. 

To-day as I write, the Democratic party, party of 
Thomas Jefferson, is celebrating here in Massachu- 
setts, a political success, almost unexampled under the 
circumstances, in state elections, since the party was 
first inaugurated. The tribes of Israel never claimed 
Abraham as their father with more devout pride and 
filial reverence, than have the Democrats of this nation 
Thomas Jefferson as theirs, since their party first 
learned to lisp his name. 

And those tribes crying, " Crucify Him, crucify 
Him," in the court-room of Pilate, or mocking their 
victim as he climbed Mount Calvary, bearing his cross 
in sweating agony, did not more dishonor their patri- 
archal father and founder than did the Democratic 
party and their Whig accomplices on the plains of 
Texas, murdering the Mexicans in a bloody war to 
reinstate slavery where the Mexican government, with 
its Roman Catholic religion, had not many years 
before, abolished it, as all humanity hoped, forever. 
That was almost forty years ago. Undoubtedly, devo- 
tion to slavery sent the old Whig party to a scarcely 
too early grave. Worship of the same unclean and 
bloody Moloch, stove down democratic rule, from the 
kindled wrath of the Infinite Justice around Fort 
Sumter, until the victories won yesterday in so many 
States of this Union, and proudly celebrated to-day, 
give sign almost unmistakable, of its probable return 
at the next presidential election. 

And now the next and last witness as to the whole 
quality and character of slavery, even as he saw it 



68 SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 

and himself embraced it, is the patriarchal American 
Democrat, Thomas Jefferson himself. 

His memorable " Notes on the State of Virginia," 
so often cited in the past, so greatly disregarded 
while slavery continued, were revised and published 
in 1787, when the problem of slavery was shaking the 
new republic to its foundation. 

The section relating to slavery contains so many 
general observations on human relations and obliga- 
tions, individual as well as collective, social as well as 
civil and governmental, with a profoundly reverent 
recognition of higher authority than any man-made 
institutions, or constitutions, that it surely is not too 
much to declare that a return of the Democratic party 
to power will be a blessing or scourge and curse, 
exactly in proportion as it shall follow, or reject the 
doctrines and counsels of its justly venerated founder 
and progenitor, as laid down in the passage from his 
" Notes on the State of Virginia," here reproduced : 

There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on 
the manners of our people, produced by the existence 
of Slavery among us. The whole commerce between 
master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most 
boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism oh 
the one part, and degrading submission on the other. 
Our children see this and learn to imitate it ; for man 
is an imitative animal. This quality in him is the 
germ of all education. From his cradle to his grave, 
he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a 
parent could find no motive, either in his philanthropy 
or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of 
passion toward his slave, it should always be a suffi- 
cient one that his child is present. But generally it 
is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks 
on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same 
airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the 
worst of passions, and thus nursed and educated, and 
daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by 



SLAVERY AS IT WAS. 69 

it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a 
prodigy who can retain his manners and morals unde- 
praved by such circumstances. 

And with what execration should the statesman be 
loaded, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to 
trample on the rights of the other, transforms those 
into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the 
morals of one part and the amor patritz of the other! 
For if a slave can have a country in this world, it 
must be any other in preference to that in which he is 
born to live and labor for another ; in which he must 
lock up the faculties of his nature ; contribute, as far 
as depends on his individual endeavors, to the evan- 
ishment of the human race, or entail his own miser- 
able condition on the' endless generations proceeding 
from him. 

With the morals of. the people, their industry also is 
destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor 
for himself who can make another labor for him. This 
is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves, a very 
small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And 
can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when 
we have removed their only firm basis — a conviction 
in the minds of the people that these liberties are the 
gift of God ? That they are not to be violated but 
with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country 
when I reflect that God is just : that his justice can- 
not sleep forever : that considering numbers, and 
natural means Tmly, a revolution of the wheel of For- 
tune, an exchange of situation is among possible 
events : that it may become probable by supernatural 
interference ! The Almighty has no attribute which 
can take sides with us in such a contest ! But it is 
impossible to be temperate and pursue this subject 
through the various considerations of policy, of mor- 
als, of history, natural and civil. We must be con- 
tented to hope they will force their way into every 
mind. I think a change already perceptible since the 
origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the 
master is abating ; that of the slave rising from the 
dust ; his condition molifying ; the way I hope pre- 
paring, under the auspices of heaven, for a total 



70 SLAVERY — AS IT WAS. 

emancipation. And that this is disposed, in the order 
of events, to be with the consent of the masters, 
rather than by their extirpation. 

Such was American slavery. Jefferson proved its 
historian as well as prophet, to wondrous extent. 
Happy for the nation, had it heeded his wise and 
timely counsels. Happy for it would it even now 
learn to regard them. 

When, before or since our slave system, did govern- 
ments ever punish with death for seventy offences, 
and then forbid, under penalties almost as severe as 
death, to teach one of the victims of such tyranny to 
read one law of man or God, in any book, the Bible 
not excepted? It may have been. But when, or where ? 
What but cold-blooded murder must such governing 
have been ! To rid the land of such a plague, no 
wonder it required an army on our side only, of more 
than two million seven hundred thousand men, half a 
million of whom never returned ! And then, as a 
crowning, sealing sacrifice, an idolized president mas- 
sacred, murdered, and his tall form stretched across 
their premature graves, while not this nation only, but 
foreign peoples stood aghast! All this, not to speak 
of moneyed cost and loss ; nor counting the sighs 
and tears, bereavements and mournings of mothers, 
sisters, widows and orphans ! All this, not reckoning 
moral and spiritual, as well as financial impoverish- 
ment and desolation, not to be restored perhaps till 
our third and fourth generations ! Such was part of 
the price paid to redeem the land from its uncommon 
curse. Men called the war of sword and bayonet, 
Rebellion. It might have been rebellion on the part 
of slavery and the South. But to the North it was 
Retribution. The South claimed as property, the 
slave. But the North, by the terms of the Federal 



SLAVERY— AS IT WAS. 7 I 

Union, held him pinned down to the earth as with 
the point of the bayonet. From the torture-chambers 
of the imprisoned slave our guilt ascended, by silent 
but sure evaporation, until it hung in threatening- 
clouds over all the sky, waiting the dread hour when 
the Infinite Patience could endure it no longer ! 

At last the command was given, and the tempest 
and thunder shook the very heavens, saying to the 
North, "Give up ;" to the South, " Keep not back." 
No lightning-rod shielded either ; and Slavery, with 
all its reeking, shrieking altars, and ghastly parapher- 
nalia of whips, fetters, blood-hounds and red-hot 
branding-irons, was swept away in cataclysms of blood 
and fire ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

ANTI-SLAVERY — WHAT IT WAS NOT, 
AND WHAT IT WAS. 

Such account could slavery give of itself, "Peculiar 
Institution " it was often called. But it was not pecul- 
iar to the southern states. Fortunes were made by the 
African slave trade, even in little Rhode Island. The 
history of slavery and slave trading in Massachusetts 
is one of the most surprising volumes ever issued by 
the American press. New Hampshire held slaves. 
General Washington himself, while President of the 
United States, hunted a slave woman and her child 
all the wav into that then remote state. Vermont, had 
a fugitive slave case in 1808. But the brave Judge 
Harrington stunned the remorseless claimant with his 
decision that " nothing less than a bill of sale from the 
Almighty could establish ownership " in his victim. 
And he, too, returned home despoiled and shamed. 

Slavery was the sin and crime of north as well as 
south. It was sustained by the government, it was 
sanctified by almost the whole religion of the nation. 
I have read that even the Quakers gravely considered 
the question, not whether it was right to hold slaves, 
but whether it was proper to brand them with red hot 
marking irons. To the credit of that sect, however, 
it should be told that it was among the first, if not the 
very first, to cast the accursed thing forever out of 
its fellowship. 

Three clauses in the federal constitution were so 
interpreted as to brand the whole nation as slave- 
holders, slave-hunters and slave-traders ; and one of 



ANTI-SLAVERY — WHAT IT WAS NOT, ETC. 73 

those clauses was in two words, " suppress insur- 
rections." And another was in this apparently inno- 
cent, inoffensive period : 

No person held to service or labor in one state 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor ; but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
service or labor may be due. 

And under that guarantee, which, as president, he 
was solemnly sworn to execute, did George Washing- 
ton himself pursue a slave mother and her child from 
the Potomac to the Piscatauqua as remorselessly as 
though they had been a sheep and her lamb. For- 
tunately, however, for the victims, they escaped and 
lived and died in the old Granite State. 

Our African slave trade was a piracy that paled all 
ordinary buccaneering into innocence. That traffic, 
with all its nameless terrors and tortures, was secured 
to the United States and positively protected by this 
specious and apparently inoffensive phrase in the 
ninth section of Article I in the federal consti- 
tution : 

The migration or importation of such persons as 
any of the states now existing shall think proper to 
admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to 
the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a 
tax or duty may be imposed on such importations, 
not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

And Mr. Madison, afterwards president, declared, 
and it is part of our history, that "the southern states 
would not have entered the union without the tem- 
porary permission of that trade." 

The first fugitive slave law was enacted in 1793. 
But as anti-slavery sentiment increased, through the 
faithful and persistent labors of the uncompromising 
Abolitionists, " underground railroads," as they 



74 ANTI-SLAVERY — WHAT IT WAS NOT, 

were called, multiplied, and Judge Harrington's 
decisions became more frequent. Underground rail- 
mads were only lines of travel through the northern 
states to Canada, over which, under cover of night,, 
great numbers of slaves were conveyed, sometimes 
in whole families; one anti-slavery man hurrying them 
from his town to the next, or farther, if necessary, and 
then another taking them in charge, and. so on till 
they were safely landed in Canada, beyond reach of 
further pursuit or danger. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
has no more interesting chapter than that in which 
"Senator Bird's" adventure is described with his 
night express train over that memorable but dark and 
dangerous highway out of democratic despotism to 
freedom in a land of kings and queens. And large 
numbers escaped with greater security, as their friends 
multiplied along the way, by their own unaided 
efforts. 

So another and severer fugitive law was demanded, 
and in 1850 -enacted. That law, in the first place, 
made every inch of our country, and the deck of 
every vessel, on sea, lake or river, hunting ground for 
slave-holder and kidnapper. And whoever refused 
to aid in the bloody, brutal business of chasing, 
seizing and holding the human prey, when called into 
the service, or harbored or concealed the victims so 
that they escaped, was punished " by fine not exceed- 
ing six thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceed- 
ing six months." And, moreover, could be then held 
in an action for damages to the slave claimant, for 
one thousand dollars for every slave lost through 
refusal to obey that most shameful as well as unright- 
eous and inhuman edict. And many of the best 
families in the land were beggared only for religiously 
observing the Golden Rule and remembering and 



AND WHAT IT WAS. 75 

regarding them who were in bonds as bound with 
them. 

As early as the year 1840, efforts began to be made 
by some anti-slavery men, who had faith or hope 
in political action against slavery, to change the inter- 
pretations of the constitution and decisions of the 
Supreme Court so as to make not only the clauses just 
now cited, but the whole instrument a proclamation 
and protection of universal liberty. Foremost among 
these men was Mr. Gerrit Smith, of New York. A 
third political party was inaugurated, and James G. 
Birney, whose name has already had honorable men- 
tion in these pages, was the first nominated anti- 
slavery candidate for the presidency, and whose first 
anti-slavery works, as a repentant slave-holder, entitled 
him to such distinction. But his name was with- 
drawn after his first vote was given in 1844, and John 
P. Hale of New Hampshire, succeeded him. He also 
was superseded in the candidacy for one who 
undoubtedly might control a larger vote, Martin Van 
Buren, but whose anti-slavery reputation was surely 
of most questionable character. But the popular 
sentiment, press, pulpit, everything, everywhere pre- 
vailed over all such innovation till the election of 
Abraham Lincoln, who in his inaugural address on 
March 4th, 1861, declared for slave-holding and 
slave-hunting in these strange, but surely ever memor- 
able words : 

I understand a proposed amendment, which amend- 
ment I have not seen, has passed Congress, to the 
effect that the federal government shall never inter- 
fere with the domestic institutions of the states, 
including that of persons held to service. To avoid 
misconstruction of what I have said, I now depart 
from my purpose not to speak of particular amend- 
ments, so far as to say, that holding such a provision 



76 ANTI-SLAVERY WHAT IT WAS NOT, 

to be now implied constitutional law, I have no 
objection to its being made express and irrevocable. 

Mark the words, "express and irrevocable." 
Express : not implied ; not doubtful. Irrevocable : 
not to be revoked ; more than statute of Medes and 
Persians. 

Thus to slave-breeding as well as slave-working ; 
to slave-buying, selling, holding and hunting, was the 
whole nation and government committed under the 
presidency, not of a southern, but a northern man ; 
not of the Democratic, but the Republican party, and, 
as was claimed, the very best of that party. And the 
whole national domain was made human hunting 
ground, from Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill, to the 
wilds of Alaska, and the Golden Gate. And by the 
fugitive slave law, every man and woman was held to 
the bloodhound business of hunting slaves, when 
required by the officers, under heavy fines and cruel 
imprisonments. Such, in the Christian year one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, was the 
culmination of all anti-slavery political parties. 

The American Anti-Slavery Society had also a 
constitution. Its declared aim was, " to convince all 
our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to the 
understanding and conscience, that slave-holding is a 
heinous crime in the sight of God ; and that the duty, 
safety and best interests of all concerned, require its 
immediate abandonment, without expatriation." 
Another declaration was this : " The society will 
never in any way countenance the oppressed in 
vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force." 

A declaration of sentiment, issued at the inaugura- 
tion of the society, spoke thus : 

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be 
personally defeated, but our principles never. Truth, 
justice, reason, humanity, must and will gloriously 



AND WHAT IT WAS. 77 

triumph. * * * We shall send forth agents 
to lift up the voice of remonstrance and warning. 
We shall circulate unsparingly, anti-slavery tracts and 
periodicals. We shall enlist the pulpit and the press. 

And faithfully, consistently, persistently, without 
concealment, without compromise, did the true aboli- 
tionists continue so to act to the end. In an 
enterprise solely moral and religious, as well as 
philanthropic, the first, most earnest appeal was to the 
church and pulpit. A more devoutly religious man 
than was Mr. Garrison at the outset, or more soundly 
orthodox and evangelical in sentiment, could not be 
found. That has already been sufficiently shown. 
And his strongest, kindest, most affectionate appeals 
in behalf' of the enslaved were first made to the 
ministers and churches of Boston, the then venerable 
Dr. Beecher being most eminent among them. 

I was a very humble unordained minister in a little 
New Hampshire town, where I was preaching as a 
candidate for settlement, when my first official testi- 
mony was asked and cheerfully given in relation to 
the crime and curse of slavery. The county anti- 
slavery society where I was, issued, through a com- 
mittee whose chairman was the afterwards well and 
widely known Stephen S. Foster, a Circular to all the 
ministers of the county, respectfully asking their 
several answers to the following questions, relative to 
the duty of the church and clergy of the country on 
the subject of slavery : 

i. Do you, or do you not believe that a man's right 
to liberty is derived from God, and is therefore 
inalienable ? 

2. Do you regard slave-holding, under all circum- 
stances, as a sin against God, and an immorality ? 

3. Do you approve and support the principles and 
measures of the American Anti-Slavery Society and 
kindred organizations ? 



78 ANTI-SLAVERY WHAT IT WAS NOT, 

4. Do you allow the claims of the Anti-Slavery 
Society the same prominence in the pulpit exercises 
of the Sabbath as those of other benevolent institu- 
tions ? 

5. Are the slave-owners excluded from the com- 
munion of the church to which you minister, and 
slave-owning ministers from the pulpit ? 

6. Are you in favor of withdrawing all Christian 
fellowship from slave-owners ? 

7. Are you in favor of supporting such benevolent 
institutions as admit slave-owners to participate in 
their management, and knowingly receive into their 
treasuries the avails of the unrequited toil of the slave, 
and the human-flesh auctions of the south ? 

Readers, young and old, can see by these crucial 
questions what stern demands were made on the abo- 
litionists at that day, who would keep their hands 
clean, their garments unspotted from the guilt of 
slavery, whose victims then numbered two and a half 
millions. 

Many ministers, to whom the letter of inquiry was 
sent, paid no attention to it. Some answered cau- 
tiously and prudently, having in their churches and soci- 
eties influential men whose political party ties, if not 
their own personal opinions, bound them as with iron 
bands, to the accursed institution. A very few ven- 
tured as far in testimony or protest against the system 
as possible without periling their denominational 
position and fellowship. Perhaps the only satisfac- 
tory response in all respects to the questions pro- 
pounded, was in part as given below : 

Your sixth question is: "Are you in favor of 
withdrawing all Christian fellowship from slave- 
owners ?" 

A step so important as this should not be rashly 
taken. * * * And yet to those who would be sep- 
arate from all sin, who would " have no fellowship 
with the unfruitful works of darkness," what question 



AND WHAT IT WAS. 79 

could be of easier solution ? With those fell demons 
of darkness, whose awful cruelties are equalled only by 
their shameless and unblushing licentiousness, none 
should expect me to hold "Christian fellowship." But 
shall 1 with the more humane and outwardly moral ? 
For my part, I can conceive of no possible circum- 
stances where one person can claim property in 
another, under our slave system, without being guilty 
of iniquity and oppression, and of giving countenance 
and sanction to whatever abuses may result from that 
system. I might own a slave, and so far as simple 
treatment is concerned, do him no injustice. I might 
feed, blanket, bed and house him as tenderly as I do 
my horse. I might give him mental and moral instruc- 
tion so far as the laws regulating slavery allowed ; 
and, were it possible, make him as happy as the angels 
before the heavenly throne. * * * But what then? 
If 1 own him under the slave system of this nation, I 
lend my influence, countenance, sanction and sancti- 
fieation to all the atrocities connected with that svs- 
tem. Not one pain nor pang could be inflicted on the 
tortured slave, by cart-whip or cat-hauling ; the poison 
tooth of blood-hound, the murderous rifle-bullet, or 
red hot branding-iron, or the soul-crushing agonies of 
the mother torn from her helpless babes and sold on 
the auction block, forever from their sight, not one 
of these, nor any other of the nameless and horrible 
outrages and cruelties of the accursed plague, might 
not be justly chargeable to my account ! My very 
virtues as a slave-holder might do more to perpetuate 
the system than all the vices which cluster around 
it, till I might indeed be the most wicked slave-holder 
in the land. What better palliation could the average 
slave-holder plead than that such a man as I was a 
breeder and holder of slaves ? * * * In my own 
opinion, the most guilty of all among the slave-holders 
are those whose professions are loudest and strongest 
in favor of morality and religion ; the minister, the 
elder, the deacon and private member of the church. 
In one word, as Judge Birney, a ruling elder in the 
Presbyterian church, has already proclaimed and 
proved : " The American Churches are the Bulwarks 



So ANTI-SLAVERY — WHAT IT WAS NOT, 

of American Slavery." Did not their influence, sanc- 
tify slavery, its own odiousness would be its overthrow. 
And must I commune in sacramental fellowship with 
those who of all others are guiltiest in relation to the 
most daring system of iniquity that ever cursed the 
earth or scourged the inhabitants thereof? O, my 
soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their assem- 
bly, mine honor, be not thou united ! 

To-day, when everyone is, or would be thought an 
abolitionist, or the descendant of an abolitionist, such 
sentiments seem only reasonable and right ; only log- 
ical and consistent ; slavery being everywhere and 
always a heinous sin and crime. But in 1840, when 
slavery had yet before it almost a quarter of a century 
in which to plague us, it was not so. Slave-holders 
were welcomed to the pulpits and sacramental suppers 
of the churches in every state and county, if not in 
every single town, where churches existed. And the 
faithful and devout abolitionists, however evangelical 
in sentiment, were as universally cast out. There 
were exceptions, but so rare as rather to affirm and 
confirm than impeach the rule. 

And the political test of the time was not less stern 
and severe. The great political parties vied with 
each other in zeal and devotion to the demands of the 
national idol. Louisiana and Florida had already 
been purchased by the government, in obedience to 
its behest, though in avowed violation of the federal 
constitution. All the Indian tribes in the southern 
seaboard states had been driven from their homes, 
their churches and school-houses, their printing presses 
and the graves of their ancestors, with unheard of 
haste and cruelty, that their coveted lands might be 
seized and doomed to slave-holding, the Seminoles in 
Florida only excepted. And General Taylor, with 
government troops, supplemented by imported Cuban 



AND WHAT IT WAS. 8 1 

blood-hounds, was soon to complete the bloody busi- 
ness by exterminating such as presumed to resist, and 
capturing and banishing the rest to the western wilds, 
then unexplored and almost unknown. Arrangements 
were making, secret and open, to seize Texas from 
Mexico, at whatever cost of national dishonor and 
war, to reinstate slavery, which Roman Catholic Mex- 
ico had abolished almost twenty years before, and 
then annex it to the United States. Both the whig 
and democratic parties were emulating each other in 
their zeal and devotion to so vile an object by such 
unhallowed means. And so the anti-slavery demand 
on the parties, as well as on the churches, was to come 
out of them. No religious or theological opinions 
were questioned, no political party preferences were 
challenged, Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist or 
Presbyterian might remain true to their chosen creed, 
only treat slavery in the church as other robbery, adul- 
tery, and murder. So whig and democrat, only let 
the equalty of all men, as announced in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, be solemnly observed and 
applied, might remain whig and democrat forever. 

For themselves, the American Anti-Slavery Society 
abolitionists, at their national anniversary in 1844, 
adopted the resolution below, to which they adhered 
till the slave-holders' rebellion made sure the end of 
slavery : 

Resolved, That secession from the present United 
States government is the duty of every abolitionist ; 
since no one can take office or cast a vote for another 
to hold office under the United States constitution, 
without violating his anti-slavery principles, and ren- 
dering himself an abettor of the slave-holder in his sin. 

To expect to find editors, missionaries and apostles 
able, ready, willing to adopt, inculcate and defend doc- 
trines and measures thus uncompromising and extreme. 



82 ANTI-SLAVERY WHAT IT WAS NOT, 

was to pay high compliment to human nature, courage 
and character. But such appeared, both women and 
men. Indeed, long before this time, the slave power 
had revealed itself in almost every possible way, both 
in state and church, as ready to execute terrible ven- 
geance on any who dared refuse quick obedience to 
its behests, or even to question its right to reign 
supreme. At the opening of the anti-slavery apoca- 
lypse by Garrison in 1830, the whole nation — state, 
church, government, religion, education, trade, com- 
merce, — all were held subservient to its sovereign will 
and pleasure. Every conceivable human interest, 
nearly every distinguished clergyman, politician, office- 
seeker as well as office-holder, bowed reverently in 
our temple of Moloch, humbly exclaiming, "Not my 
will, but thine be done." Already had Garrison been 
heavily fined, and imprisoned in Baltimore, only for 
exposing in a newspaper an atrocious instance of 
cruelty in our coastwise slave trade. In Boston he had 
been mobbed, stripped nearly naked, dragged by a 
rope through the streets till rescued by the authorities 
and shut in the strongest jail, to save his imperilled 
life. A worthy minister in New Hampshire, engaged to 
give an anti-slavery lecture, was arrested as a " com- 
mon brawler," jerked from his knees and pulpit to 
trial as he was offering his opening prayer. Churches, 
school-houses, orphan asylums and dwellings of colored 
people, in Providence, New York, Philadelphia and 
Cincinnati, had been mobbed, sacked, burned down ; 
twelve in New York and one church ; more than forty 
in Philadelphia and two churches ; and one church 
and many dwellings in Cincinnati. And many colored 
men were severely injured in their persons, and girls 
and women grossly outraged by their diabolical assail- 
ants. So were they hated for their color ; and because 



AND WHAT IT WAS. 83 

millions of their kindred were slaves to democratic, 
republican and christian masters. Pennsylvania Hall, 
in Philadelphia, was erected at cost of forty thousand 
dollars, wholly for anti-slavery and other philanthro- 
phic purposes. During an anti-slavery convention, in 
1838, that spacious and beautiful structure was 
mobbed, set on fire, and burned to ashes, with all its 
contents. A valuable library and much other property 
were consumed in the flames. Nor did the city 
authorities, from mayor and aldermen to sheriff and 
police, utter a protest ; still less proffer any protection, 
or word of sympathy to the innocent and peaceful 
sufferers. Rev. Elijah Parish Lovejoy, native of 
Maine, graduate of Waterville College, and brother of 
Owen Lovejoy, afterwards member of Congress, per- 
ished in an attempt to protect his press and printing 
office from the fate of Pennsylvania Hall. It was in 
Alton, Illinois, north of St. Louis, on the opposite 
bank of the Mississippi, that the most heart-rending 
and horrible instance of burning a slave to death over 
a slow fire in St. Louis in the year 1837, had just been 
made public, as has been already described. The 
St. Louis newspapers, though generally approving the 
devilish deed, stirred the civilized world with their 
account of it. Of course the editorial pen of Lovejoy 
was hot with hallowed fire at the awful recital. His 
office and life were soon threatened. He appealed to 
the authorities for protection. He might as well have 
looked to the murderers of the poor slave. His 
friends counselled him to flee. He answered : " I 
dare not flee away from Alton. The crisis has come 
and I have counted the cost. Should I attempt to 
flee I should feel that the Angel of the Lord was pur- 
suing me with flaming sword, wherever I went. And 
it is because I fear God, that I am not afraid of all 



04 ANTI-SLAVERY WHAT IT WAS NOT, ETC. 

who oppose me in this wicked city ! " This was the 
fourth printing press he had set up. All the others 
had been ruthlessly destroyed by the same mob vio- 
lence that now assailed this. Refused all municipal 
protection, he and a few brave friends entered the 
building alone. They fearlessly faced the mob till 
the building was in flames. As they came out, Love- 
joy received five bullets and fell dead. Three of the 
bullets were taken out of his breast. He was but 
thirty-two and left a young wife and babes. When 
his mother read the account of his death, she said : 
" It is well ; I had rather he died defending his prin- 
ciples, than that he should have forsaken them ! " So 
it became all who entered the conflict to count well 
the cost. 



CHAPTER V. 

ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, WITH SOME 
PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 

My first intimate acquaintance and companion in 
travel in the missionary field, was Stephen Symonds 
Foster. To him was largely due my first and best 
lessons in anti-slavery work. My preparation for the 
Congregational Ministry was all made in less than 
four years from the reaper and the plough. The 
three years regular theological course was at Gilman- 
ton, New Hampshire, where attempt was made to 
stretch the charter of an accademical institution to 
cover an entire theological department. The enter- 
prise failed, though in those years, the little, remote 
hamlet of " Gilmanton Corner," aspired and strove 
hard to become famous as the seat of Gilmanton Theo- 
logical Seminary. I was first to enter the new depart- 
ment, and for several days one professor, and he not 
inaugurated nor installed, and one student, were all 
that were visible of that "School of the Prophets." 
But during my three years, the usual three regular 
classes were formed, though with small numbers, and 
two professors were elected and inaugurated. Some 
good and useful men were graduated, but in a few 
years, "Gilmanton Theological Seminary" ceased to 
be, and was known no more. My own three years' 
course seemed to me so short, preceded as it had 
been by neither collegiate nor academical study, that 
I determined on a year at Andover. It continued, 
however, only through the long fall and winter term ; 



86 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

and then, after a short anti-slavery traveling agency,. 
I commenced the work of a parish minister in a small 
New Hampshire town, but without ordination. My 
religious sentiments were of the true Gilmanton and 
Andover complexion. The creed of both was the 
same, though my printed copy was the Andover, a 
pamphlet of thirty pages octavo. A few extracts may 
be interesting to readers in these stirring theological 
times : 

Every person appointed or elected a professor in 
this seminary shall, on the day of his inauguration into 
office, and in presence of the trustees, publicly make 
and subscribe the following declarations : 

I believe that there is one, and but one, living and 
true God ; that the word of God contained in the 
scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only 
perfect rule of faith and practice; * * 

that in the Godhead are three Persons : The Father, 
the Son and the Holy Ghost ; that these three are one 
God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory ; 
that Adam, the federal head and representative of the 
human race, was placed in a state of probation, and 
that, in consequence of his disobedience, all his 
descendants were constituted sinners ; that by nature 
every man is personally depraved, destitute of holi- 
ness, unlike, and opposed to God, and that prev- 
iously to the renewing agency of the Divine Spirit, all 
his moral actions are adverse to the character of God ; 
that being morally incapable of recovering the image 
of his Creator which was lost in Adam, every man is 
justly exposed to eternal damnation ; * * * 
that God of his mere good pleasure elected some to 
everlasting life ; and that he entered into a covenant 
of grace to deliver them out of this state of sin and 
misery by a Redeemer ; that the only Redeemer of 
the elect is the eternal Son of God ; * * * 
that the souls of believers are at their death made 
perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into 
glory ; that their bodies, being still united to Christ, 
will at the resurrection, be raised up to glory ; and 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 87 

that the saints will be made perfectly blessed in the 
full enjoyment of God to all eternity; but that the 
wicked will awake to shame and everlasting contempt, 
and with devils, will be plunged into the lake that 
burnetii with lire and brimstone forever and ever. 

* * * I moreover believe that God, accord- 
ing to the counsel of His own will, and for His own 
glory, hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass ; 

* * * that God's decrees perfectly consist 
with human liberty, God's universal agency with the 
agency of man, and man's dependence with his ac- 
countability. * * * And, furthermore, I 
do solemnly promise that I will open and explain the 
Scriptures to my pupils with integrity and faithfulness ; 
that I will maintain and inculcate the Christian faith 
as expressed in the creed by me now repeated, together 
with all the other doctrines and duties of our holy re- 
ligion so far as may appertain to my office, according 
to the best light God shall give me ; and in opposition 
not only to Atheists and Infidels, but to Jews, Mahom- 
etans, Arians, Pelagians, Antinomians, Arminians, 
Socinians, Unitarians and Universalists. * * * 
The preceding declaration shall be repeated by every 
professor in the seminary, in the presence of the trus- 
tees, at the expiration of every successive period of 
five years ; and no man shall be continued as presi- 
dent or professor in this institution who shall not 
continue to approve himself to the satisfaction of the 
trustees, a man of sound and orthodox principles in 
divinity, agreeably to the system of evangelical doc- 
trines contained in the said Westminster Shorter 
Catechism, and more concisely delineated in the afore- 
said Creed. 

These extracts are copied from the Laws of the 
Theological Institution in Andover, printed at Andover 
by Gould & Newman, in 1837, one year before my 
entrance there. Nor had I openly dissented from any 
of these doctrines, as I understood them, when I left 
the Congregational church and its pulpit for the divine 
ministry of freedom, humanity and holiness. 



88 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

My anti-slavery apostleship commenced as a life- 
work in New Hampshire in 1840. In that year was 
held in London the memorable World's anti-slavery 
convention, made memorable most of all by its rejec- 
tion of several American commissioned delegates, one 
of them being Mrs. Lucretia Mott, because they were 
women. " British usage," was the only plea in justifi- 
cation, in a realm that had had women at the head of 
state and church, parliament, army, navy, the whole 
nation, many times, all down the centuries from Boa- 
dicea to Queen Victoria. Mr. Garrison, of the Liber- 
ator, and Mr. Rogers, of the Herald of Freedom, on 
seeing the credentials of their associate delegates thus 
dishonored, retired to the gallery and did not enroll 
themselves as members of the convention ; a course 
which was not only approved but admired by the great 
body of their constituents. 

My first work as an agent in New Hampshire was to 
conduct the Herald of Freedom during the absence 
of the editor abroad. When he returned to his edit- 
orial post in autumn I entered the lecturing field, with 
full resolve to see the overthrow of the Southern slave 
system or perish in the conflict. The doctrine of the 
American society was moral, peaceful, religious agita- 
tion, in the strain of the poet Whittier : 

" With the mild arms of truth and love, 
Made mighty through the living God.'' 

And as my leaders and teachers, Garrison and Rogers, 
relied only on truth, reason and argument for success, 
so not less did I. My first lecturing tour was in north- 
ern New Hampshire, extending to but few towns and 
occupying only a few days. I went as substitute for 
Rev. John W. Lewis, a very large and unusually black 
Baptist minister — my companion, John R. French, 
afterward printer of the Herald of Freedom. He had 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 89 

been advertised in the Herald \o accompany Mr. Lewis, 
neither of them, nor myself either, ever having been 
in that part of the State. Sudden illness kept Mr. 
Lewis at home, and I was deputed by the Board of 
Managers his substitute, perhaps as near to a colored 
man as could then conveniently be found. This cir- 
cumstance led to many amusing incidents, as most of 
the towns we visited had never seen any person of 
African descent ; and so curiosity to see a specimen 
of the " connecting link " sometimes added many to 
our audiences. Nor did we always, at the outset, dis- 
abuse the people, and more than once I was introduced 
with becoming grace as " Rev. John W. Lewis, who 
will now address us." In one instance, we accompa- 
nied an excellent old gentleman home to tea, be- 
tween our afternoon and evening meetings. It was 
quite dark when we arrived, and there was not time 
for ceremony nor explanation, and I was immediately 
introduced as Rev. Mr. Lewis, and my companion as 
" our young brother, French." We had reached the 
tea-table before we revealed our secret. The only un- 
pleasant circumstance attending was that it was then 
such reproach, almost crime, to wear a colored skin, 
that the family felt called upon to make to me humble 
apologies for the affront, if not outrage, they had put 
upon me. But I justified them satisfactorily, on two 
or three grounds. They had read and accepted the 
advertisement in the Herald ; nor had we explained 
to the contrary ; nor was my own color really so light 
as to entitle me to any special respect on its account. 
" No," said the good old man, quite earnestly, " nor so 
dark as to be suspected as a negro ; for I told some 
of my friends after the meeting that as you sat there 
by Nat Allen, while brother French was speaking, I 
looked at you both, and couldn't see but that Nat was 
quite as black as you." 



90 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

Had I been Mr. Lewis, he would have noted a dif- 
ference, as he was one of the tallest, largest and dark- 
est of his race. 

Nat Allen, while he lived, was one of the noblest, 
truest of the anti-slavery host ; and as good at home 
as abroad. A humble, hard-working harness maker, 
and poor as well as radical and outspoken, he was still 
everywhere respected. I drove at that time a small 
but very pretty nag I bought of my father, and Mr. 
Rogers had loaned me an old wagon and harness, the 
latter much too large for my little mare. This, our 
faithful friend Allen saw ; and before we had com- 
pleted our work in Littleton and neighboring towns, 
he had cut out and made a handsome harness which 
exactly fitted my dapple Tunbridge — name I gave her 
from her Morgan sire, and by which in after years she 
became well known to New England Abolitionists. 
Under the circumstances, a more generous gift was 
never bestowed. And more than once was the gener- 
ous giver cruelly imprisoned for his fidelity to the 
cause of the more cruelly imprisoned slave. Readers 
may hear from Nat Allen again. 

At this time my severed connection with the church 
and pulpit had not been formal ; so occasionally I 
was asked to preach on Sunday, and especially where 
a liberal heresy had begun to assert itself. This hap- 
pened in Littleton, where some wealthy Unitarians had 
aided in building a handsome Congregational church, 
on one condition. There were only one or two fami- 
lies, and they seldom or never asked for the house, 
unless once or twice in summer, when a liberal^clergy- 
man might chance to be at the White Mountains, per- 
haps arriving late in the week. It need not be said 
here that forty and more years ago the mountains 
were no such resort as at present ; nor were bronchitis 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 01 

and hay-fever such sore judgments of the pulpit as to- 
day. So it was not difficult to obtain of those build- 
ing the Littleton church a pledge that the Unitarians 
should have an occasional use of it at the shortest 
notice. 

It chanced that the Unitarian families were not 
hostile to anti-slavery, and when I arrived in town on 
Saturday afternoon, my friend Allen and others asked 
their Unitarian neighbors to invite me to preach for 
them on the following day. There was no objection, 
but it was questioned whether I, being a Congrega- 
tionalism could properly ask to be admitted to the 
pulpit as such. To this there could be but one 
answer, and my friend Allen went with me to call on 
the minister. For some reason we did not see him till 
Sunday morning. When we called in the morning 
we were shown into the library, and soon the minister 
entered, attended by his father, also a clergy- 
man, well and widely known, but retired from regular 
service. We were coolly greeted and denied admis- 
sion to the pulpit for any cause. My editorial con- 
nection with the Herald of Freedom, then just termin- 
ated, probably had not increased my ministerial pop- 
ularity and any argument or appeal was only wasted. 
We were simply reminded that we had our answer and 
that it was getting late for church. I think we had 
risen to our feet before friend Allen began his part 
of our mission. In his usual serene and mild manner 
he said : " I am very sorry Mr. Pillsbury is refused 
access to the pulpit to-day in such an unchristian 
manner ; but I am instructed to say by the Unitarian 
trustees that, in case of such refusal, they shall 
occupy the meeting-house to-day, and that Mr. Pills- 
bury will be their preacher." Which at once 
changed the whole face of affairs. Both father and 



92 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

son saw and felt that the failure was with them. But 
the end of the interview was not quite come. I do 
not remember what was said by, but only to our two 
opponents. I told the minister he had not in the 
least disappointed me, but that I should now prob- 
ably, disappoint him. Your congregation, I said, are 
already assembling ; they are coming to hear you ; 
expect to hear you — have a right so to expect ; and it 
is not in me nor my friend Allen to wish to disappoint 
them. So go now and attend your morning service 
as usual ; and only be so kind as to give notice that 
I will preach this afternoon and lecture on slavery 
this evening at seven o'clock. My proposal was 
accepted, but by no means in the spirit with which it 
was made. However, it resulted admirably. For 
Littleton soon became one of our very best anti- 
slavery towns, as the volumes of the Herald of Free- 
dom of subsequent years most fully show, and so 
remained till slavery was abolished. 

Another incident of this campaign and with which 
another congregational minister was connected, was 
in Campton, one of the approaches to the now well 
known " Franconia Notch " and rock-ribbed throne 
of the "Old man of the Mountain." The minister was 
Thomas Parnell Beach. His small but well instructed 
congregation were most of them already abolitionists. 
Arriving at his house by invitation, on Saturday 
evening, my companion and myself found that 
arrangements were made for us to occupy the church 
next day, provided I would • give the morning and 
afternoon sermons. The proposal was accepted and 
with results, near and remote, of which none of us that 
night dreamed. But an interest was awakened which, 
in less than one year, led Mr. Beach to withdraw from 
his sectarian pulpit and denomination, generally at 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 93 

that time apparently indifferent, or incorrigibly pro- 
slavery, and to reconsecrate himself unreservedly to 
the ministry of the gospel of humanity. 

On the pleasant August afternoon when Mr. Beach 
delivered his formal and affecting valedictory dis- 
course to his congregation, Mr. Rogers of the Herald 
of Freedom was present and sent a brief report to his 
readers in the next paper, as given below in his own 
glowing words : 

Not returning home so soon as I expected, I send 
for editorial what I may throw off in a few minutes 
before the departure of the Concord stage. I shall 
attempt briefly a sketch of the most interesting and 
important Sunday meeting I ever witnessed, yesterday 
at Campton. I went up there to hear our persecuted 
and hunted brother, Beach. * * * He 

has set an example for the age. His yesterday's work 
in the little meeting house at Campton will constitute, 
I apprehend, an important point of remembrance — a 
land-mark in the history of the mighty reformation 
now going on for the deliverance of mankind and the 
overthrow of the usurped dominion of the sectarian 
clergy here and in other parts of Christendom. Fore- 
noon, he preached from the text ; " The foxes have 
holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son 
of Man hath not where to lay his head." He illustra- 
ted the character of the modern church and clergy in 
the light of his text — set forth their love of the world, 
of popularity, ease and comfort, and the poverty and 
destitution of the Savior and his disciples * * 

It was unmitigated, unadulterated gospel preaching — 
a terrible sermon, and I thought while hearing it, that 
it contained more of faithful, uncompromising gospel 
preaching than I ever before heard. The auditory 
was made up mostly of his warm friends and his per- 
secuting, exasperated enemies. In relation to his stay 
among them, they are divided. A porticjn of them, 
including the new-organized abolitionists, are ransack- 
ing the land to find petty faults on which to found his 
expulsion by a pro-slavery council. They have had 



94 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

one, headed by Andrew Rankin, that found nothing in 
him worthy of death or excommunication. Their 
infamous partiality and hypocritical procedure went 
far to complete the opening of the eyes of Brother 
Beach to the anti-christian character of the whole 
sectarian machinery. And on Sunday he came out in 
all the confidence of simple faith in God and in the 
majesty of truth, and renounced the whole of it to an 
extent and in a manner, which, perfectly prepared as 
I was to second, I was not prepared to witness, and 
which was truly overwhelming. 

Afternoon he took his stand on the floor of the 
house, in front of the poor little abdicated pulpit, 
which looked utterly insignificant and heathenish when 
thus pointedly abandoned. He held a memorandum 
in his hand, and his text was, " Have faith in God." 
He spoke of the character of faith, not like a hired 
clergyman writing on his contract to preach, but as a 
man experiencing what he was saying. It was brief, 
full, clear, convincing, convicting. No sound mind 
could doubt his meaning or its truth. He said if a man 
had faith he would know it, and that if he had it not 
he would know it ; and that if he had it he would act 
upon it, and if he did not act upon it he was not a 
Christian. He denied that the gospel could be preached 
in faith on a contract for a salary. He said the preacher 
who relied on his contract for support, did not rely on 
God, and had not faith. He renounced his own con- 
tract with the people to whom he was preaching, and 
released them from it. He declared himself bound 
to preach to them at the calling and mission of Christ ; 
and his obligation to rely on God for support. He 
released the people from all obligation they were under 
to pay him or sustain him for future preaching during 
the year, or for what they owed him for past preach- 
ing. He released them from a two hundred dollar 
obligation and a forty dollar promissory note which 
they owed him, and declared them null and void, 
leaving the people to act on their consciences in re- 
gard to the whole of it. He renounced his human 
license to preach and his ordination by men. He re- 
nounced sectarian organization, and expressed his 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 95 

regret that he ever entered into any covenant with a 
■church corporation, or added anything to his covenant 
made with Christ at the surrender of his heart to Him. 
He renounced all profession of religion but that of 
Christian life and conversation — renounced the pulpit 
as a consecrated elevation, and planted himself on a 
level with his hearers ; renounced his titled minister- 
ship, and declared he should henceforth go on his 
mission from Christ among his equal fellow men and 
women. He declared he should hold no more meet- 
ings which were not open to all to speak freely as him- 
self. He renounced all sermon writing as a mode of 
preaching the gospel. * * * In short, he 
swept the board of all the mummeries of human in- 
vention which had crept in upon the simplicity of 
Christ, and he did it all with a calmness, order and 
ability which filled me with admiration. I can give no 
account of it. To be appreciated it must have been 
witnessed. Thomas Farnell Beach stands now " re- 
deemed, regenerated and disenthralled," a plain and 
simple preacher of Christ. 

The subsequent labors of Mr. Beach were of most 
devoted and heroic, and sometimes suffering, descrip- 
tion, but not of long continuance, for he survived less 
than five years after his withdrawal from the sectarian 
ministry. He died in Sharon, Ohio, on the thirtieth 
of May, 1 846. He was born in Canada, Vermont, in 1808, 
graduated at Bowdoin Collge, married in 1837 Miss 
Sarah Barker, of Bethel, Maine, and settled soon after 
in Wolfboro', N. H., as Congregational minister and 
Preceptor of the Academy, from which he afterwards 
removed to Campton, where the anti-slavery cause dis- 
covered him in the autumn of 1840. 

Not very much was ever written concerning him, and 
few at this day probably remember him. But before 
this anti-slavery scripture is finished, he may be re- 
curred to again in manner, it is hoped, not unbecom- 
ing his memory. 



96 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

In Whitefield, one of my Gilmanton classmates was- 
the Congregational minister. He received us cordially, 
invited me to his pulpit on Sunday morning, and to 
his sacramental supper afterwards, and we held our 
subsequent anti-slavery meetings in his meeting-house. 

Rev. Mr. Fleming, of Haverhill, asked me to preach 
for him, he having been absent the past week and not 
being prepared to preach himself. But at the close 
of the morning service, he told the congregation 
what he had done, and then, turning to me, he said if 
the afternoon discourse was to be like this just 
heard, he must decline it. I assured him it could not 
be less objectionable, in plain speaking, and he then 
announced that he should preach in the afternoon 
himself. Which he did, and gave a very feeble dis- 
course to a small and not interested audience. My 
companion, Mr. French, and myself sat directly be- 
fore him and near the pulpit, evidently much to his 
embarrassment. Undoubtedly his refusal to permit 
my preaching in the afternoon was both damage to 
himself and advantage to me. The small, uninter- 
ested audience who heard him was surely a happy 
contrast, and most significant, too, measured by our 
large and quite spirited and attentive house in the 
evening. 

At that period the anti-slavery agents were accus- 
tomed to call early on the ministers when they entered 
a town, particularly in all country towns and parishes, 
to confer with them and solicit their cooperation in 
anti-slavery work. It soon became apparent, however, 
that very little aid was to be expected in that quarter. 
A formal division in the ranks of professed abolition- 
ists had already been made, and the evangelical 
churches and their ministers had, with wondrous 
unanimity, so far as they were anti-slavery at all. 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 97 

joined themselves to the "new organization." Griev- 
ous charges were preferred against Mr. Garrison for 
heresy and infidelity, and the American anti-slavery 
societv, at its anniversary in 1840, committed the un- 
pardonable sin of insisting that on their platform, 
however it might be in the church or elsewhere, there 
should be no high nor low, rich nor poor, great nor 
small, male nor female. It was solemnly asked : 

" Shall we behold, unheeding, 

Life's holiest feelings crushed ? 
When woman's heart is bleeding, 
Shall woman's voice be hushed ?" 

Already had the eloquence of Sarah and Angelina 
Grimke, Abby Kelley, and other noble women begun 
to thrill the hearts of women and men, even ministers, 
all over the land, as they tenderly but fearlessly 
pleaded the cause of the slave woman under the lash 
and red-hot branding-iron or on the auction-block with 
her children, she sold one way, they in other ways, 
sundered forever, but all exposed alike to the cruel 
and merciless outrages of the slave system ! At the 
final separation the woman question was urged most 
vehemently as reason for breaking with the original 
American society, especially by the clergy. In New 
Hampshire the Methodists and Free Will Baptists 
were quite numerous, and had always encouraged, if 
not even demanded that their church members should 
bear active, equal part, men and women, in all social 
if not more public meetings for worship. But the 
more dignified denominations there, and not more 
there than in every state, deemed such usage a pro- 
fanation and abomination. The Hopkinton Associa- 
tion of Congregational divines doubtless spoke the 
general sentiment of Congregationalism, Presbyterian- 
ism, and all the sects held in highest esteem in all the 



98 ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

states, as well as New Hampshire, in a solemn decree 
unanimously and promptly enacted, the declarative 
portion of which was to this effect : 

Not that women may not bear a part in the songs 
of the church, because this is an established part of 
public worship, and is not prohibited to women as 
public teaching and praying are ; publicly to sing 
God's praise, under men as leaders, is, by implication, 
enjoined upon women, as is the celebration of the 
holy supper, and of the Savior's resurrection, by 
keeping the first day of the week as holy time. Nor 
does the prohibition deprive females of any of the 
privileges of the Bible class, or religious conference, 
in which they are indulged with perfect freedom of 
speech, in answering the questions which their pastors, 
leaders, or catechists put to them. But, as to leading 
men, either in instruction, or devotion, and as to any 
interruption, or disorder, in religious meetings, "Let 
your women keep silence in the churches ;" not merely 
let them be silent, but let them keep or preserve 
silence. Not, that they may not preach, or pray, or 
exhort merely, but they may not open their lips, to 
utter any sounds audibly. Let not your women, in 
promiscuous religious meetings, preach or pray, audi- 
bly, or exhort audibly, or sigh, or groan, or say Amen, 
or utter the precious words, " Bless the Lord ; " or the 
enchanting sounds, " Glory ! Glory ! " 

The resolution to sustain the equal right of women 
on the anti-slavery platform with man, was adopted in 
the American Society at the annual meeting in New 
York in 1840, by majority of 557 to 440 ; the test 
question at the time being simply the placing of a 
woman on one of the committees. But the new organi- 
zation forthwith sprang out of it, known for a time as 
the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. 

The annual meeting of the New Hampshire Anti- 
Slavery Society was held in Concord, less than a 
month afterward and with result much the same, only 
that the opposition was less in numbers, though by 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. 99 

no means in spirit. The test vote, admitting or 
excluding women as members of the convention, was 
on an amendment substituting the word gentlemen for 
persons as originally submitted. The amendment was 
lost, 197 to 58 ; and the original resolution was adopted 
nearly unanimously, and with much enthusiasm. But 
a new organization society was immediately attempted, 
though with but indifferent success, excepting for 
political purposes, though carrying with it nearly all 
the ministers and most of the church members who 
made any pretentions to anti-slavery in the state. 

The Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society went over to 
the new organization almost in a body, with maledic- 
tions on the doctrine of woman's equality anywhere. 
The Hartford Cqngregationalist also declared that the 
women's anti-slavery Fair had to be taken from 
New Haven because no place in that city could be 
obtained in which to hold it. The meeting at which » 
the society set its terrible ban on women was held ( 
there and would have been held in a Congregational | 
church, but both minister and church, the //nni part of 
it, declared it should not be opened without a pledge 
given that women should neither speak nor vote in \ 
the meetings! That same minister presided at the 
opening of the meeting, when and where it was held i 
and declared with indignant warmth : "I will not sit . 
m a chair where women bear rule ; I will not sit 
in a meeting where the sorcery of woman's tongue is 
thrown around my heart ; Women shall not speak in . 
our meetings. I will not submit to petticoat govern- 
ment, here, nor anywhere else. I had enough of that 
in my childhood. Now I am a man, I will not sub- 
mit to it even in my own house. No woman shall 
lord it over me. I am major-domo in my own house." 
Some one responded in the audience: "A strange spirit 



IOO ACTS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES, 

has risen up among us ; " and he immediately called 
him to order ; adding, " I think I have the spirit of God. 
I am a Christian ! " This, and the Haverhill and 
Littleton ministers already described, with the Hop- 
kinton association of divines, were only true repre- 
sentatives of the great majority of the popular New 
England clergy of that day. Their plainness of 
speech well accorded with the rest. And besides, 
much larger bodies than the Hopkinton association,, 
were alike audacious in utterance, as well. 

That campaign in northern New Hampshire, made 
in the autumn after the society secessions, separations 
and new organizations, fully convinced me, had other 
hopes been entertained before, that the church and 
its ministry would be found in very deed the ""bul- 
warks," if not at last "the forlorn hope of slavery," 
in complete confirmation of the declarations of 
Hon. James G. Birney. 

It was no less plain, too, that very few of the aboli- 
tionists themselves were aware of the terrible contest 
before them ; as many later withdrawals from their 
always scanty ranks proved. In a subsequent account 
rendered to the society through their paper, the Her- 
ald, I hazarded the prediction, that "before the fell 
demon of slavery should be cast out, there would be 
contortions, foamings and wallowings to rend our 
civil, social, and ecclesiastical organizations, in so 
much that many would say, 'They are dead.' For it 
is of a kind that goeth not out but by prayer and 
fasting. Other foul spirits, too, will be discovered ; 
their very name, legion. All the foundations of the 
great deep will be broken up. On earth must be per- 
plexity and distress of nations ; the sea and the waves 
roaring, and the hearts of men failing them for fear, 



PERSONAL SKETCHES AND EXPERIENCES. IOI 

and for looking at the things that are coming on the 
earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." 

If our thirty years war of moral and peaceful agita- 
tion failed to fulfill all these prophecies, what shall be 
said of the subsequent four years war of rebellion, 
with all their frightful costs of blood and treasure ? 
War, whose thunders shook the land, the sea, the 
skies ! Whose reverberations still go sounding down 
towards the night of the nineteenth century ! 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS WITH MR. ROGERS 

AND MR. FOSTER— DIGRESSION ON 

NEW ORGANIZATION. 

New Hampshire continued my field of operations 
through 1840. Following the Grafton county cam- 
paign were two or three quite notable anti-slavery 
conventions, the best everyway, perhaps, at Milford, 
when all parts of Hillsboro' county had representa- 
tion. Mr. Garrison, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Foster, and 
some others were present to assist in the proceedings. 

The genius and spirit of our movement at that time 
may be gathered somewhat from the Resolutions gen- 
erally, most thoroughly considered and usually adopt- 
ed with few, if any, dissenting voices. At Milford the 
following passed after a searching and able discussion: 

Resolved, That slavery is a national, not a local, in- 
stitution, and the whole people are involved in all its 
guilt, evils and dangers. 

3 Resolved, That the churches, rebuked by anti-slavery 
and pronounced unworthy the name of christian, and 
the clergymen whom it declares unworthy of support 
as religious teachers, are those, and only those, who 
connive at the existence of American slavery, or re- 
fuse to bear faithful, public testimony against it. 

Resolved, That the anti-slavery society was originally 
constituted on principles of perfect equality and jus- 
tice, and any attempt to change that construction, and 
to new organize it, is a departure from those principles 
and a practical betraval of the cause of the slave. 

Milford was early an anti-slavery town. With such 
resolutions most ably discussed, and almost unanim- 



CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS. 103 

ously adopted by a large congregation, the meeting 
was everyway a success. It commenced on Thanks- 
giving evening, with an opening address by Mr. Gar- 
rison, in the spacious and then new Congregational 
meeting-house, the minister, Mr. Warner, another 
Gilmanton classmate of mine. Himself and church, 
however, were already far on the road to new organi- 
zation. Those who remained faithful to the anti- 
slavery cause soon after withdrew from the church, 
and were henceforth known as come-outers, infidels, 
non-resistants, Garrisonians, or whatever other name, 
honorable or opprobrious, was fastened upon them 
and others like them. 

It may be worthy of mention that the Concord at- 
tendants drove over to Milford in two open carriages, 
leaving home early on Thanksgiving morning, in a 
cold November rain, from which umbrellas were a 
poor protection. But the joyous greeting and recep- 
tion which awaited us at our half-way house, the 
hospitable and sumptuous home of the farmers, 
Luther and Lucinda Melendy, on Chestnut hill, in 
Amherst, very soon dispelled all memory of outside 
storms, or other exposure or inconvenience. Rogers, in 
his Herald account of the convention, said of this 
incident: 

We were received at the Melendys with the wel- 
come which compensates for months of pro-slavery 
scowling round about our path of life. Cordiality and 
brotherly love adorned the face of the household — 
the bounties of the season, the hospitable board ; and 
the Bible, the Liberator, Herald of Freedom, and Na- 
tional Anti-Slavery Standard the reading table. Here 
were the circumstances and conditions of genuine 
anti-slavery. * * * We were obliged to 
leave the interesting spot too soon. We reached Mil- 
ford, brother and sister Melendy in company, just as 
friend Warner's meeting-house was lighted up for a 



104 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

lecture from Garrison. It rained with all the dismal- 
ness of a November night. 

But our Milford reception cleared the sky of every 
cloud, and hung rainbows of beauty and joy in every 
direction. Those early anti-slavery friendships surely 
were akin to heaven itself, growing brighter, too, and 
more beautiful, as the subsequent tempests of pro- 
scription, ostracism and persecution rose in all their 
terrors over us. The triple power of society, the 
state and the church, conspired against the rising tide 
of humanity and liberty ; determined, apparently, to 
rivet on, fast and forever, the fetters of the slave, in 
the name of, and with sanction of our democratic re- 
publicanism and Protestant Christian religion. At 
that hour all our hearts seemed to beat as one — all 
anointed vision to see eye to eye. Garrison and 
Rogers had not met before since their arrival in Bos- 
ton from their foreign tour, not many weeks previously, 
and they greeted each other as David and Jonathan, 
when their loves " passed the love of women ! " At 
that convention, almost all exclaimed, " It is good for 
us to be here." We reached Concord from the Mil- 
ford convention on Saturday night, glad and thankful 
for one day of change, if not of rest, after our Thanks- 
giving week's work. 

On Monday, Stephen Foster and myself had en- 
gagements in Canterbury. Our valiant friend Rogers, 
desirous to extend his acquaintance among the abo- 
litionists of the state, volunteered to accompany us 
and to continue with us another week. Canterbury 
and last of November continued for us cold and 
most inhospitable receptions. The meeting-house was 
closed altogether, and the town-hall was as dirty and 
disagreeable, everyway, as it was dilapidated and cold. 
But we got into it. Pretty soon the meeting-house 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 105 

was unlocked, and a few came, among others the 
Congregational minister, Rev. Mr. Patrick. Our friend 
Foster, and most of his quite numerous family con- 
nections, were, or had been, members of his church ; 
and as Foster reasoned of righteousness, temperance 
and judgment to come, his minister trembled. In 
great excitement he rose to his feet as if to speak. 
He stood a moment, as though deliberating whether to 
speak or retire. But for some reason he did neither, 
and soon sat down, though much agitated at what he 
had to hear, and the truth of which he well knew 
could not be questioned. The evening meeting was 
better attended, and excellent work was done, with. 
results not yet wholly effaced ; as the generous and 
high moral and progressive sentiment of the thriving 
little town has always shown. 

Our next gathering was at Sanbornton Bridge, and 
in the very meeting-house out of whose pulpit, a few 
years before, Rev. George Storrs had been violently 
jerked, as, on his knees, he was preceding an anti^slav- 
ery address with prayer. He was arraigned as a com- 
mon braider before a magistrate, and tried as such. 

How we and our mission might be estimated in such 
society, was shown in the fact that as it was presumed 
we should occupy the pulpit, the cushions were thor- 
oughly plastered over with well crushed but most de- 
plorably ////-merchantable eggs. Had the young priests 
of such an unholy anointing only known us a very 
little better, they might have been spared such an 
offering to their idol. We had a good while before 
proved most of the pulpits to be but cowards' castles, 
or despots' thrones, even without the baptism of bad 
eggs, and shunned the whole of them accordingly. 
The afternoon meeting was small, numerically, but 
not so the evening, for the heroes of the pulpit- 



106 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

cushion and addled eggs attended in person, and ren- 
dered speaking most difficult by their boys-trous pro- 
ceedings. Still, our work resulted beyond expectation. 
We were handsomely and hospitably entertained by 
Dr. Ladd and others ; and as we were then raising the 
means to discharge a debt of two thousand dollars 
owed by our society, we were much cheered by our 
success in that direction. 

From the valley of Sanbornton Bridge we ascended 
next day to the heights of Sanbornton Square. We 
had not heard that even new organization had dared 
invade it, so well and widely was its hostility to the 
anti-slavery, temperance, and other reforms under- 
stood. At the Bridge we did discover tracks of a new 
organized agent, a minister who had done his best and 
worst, there and elsewhere, to blast the fair fame of 
the old society and all its instrumentalities, though, 
as we saw, more to his own harm than ours. But how we 
sped at the Square can best be told by the editor of 
the Herald of Freedom himself. In the number of 
December 4th, 1840, some editorial correspondence 
read as below : 

After dinner, Wednesday, we rode to Sanbornton 
Square, calling on Richard Lane. Mrs. Lane seemed 
an abolitionist. Her husband was absent, but they 
had received no notice of an anti-slavery meeting. 
Came soon to the sightly and commanding Square, 
superb with prospect. Tavern kept by Mr. Lane. It 
is the Lane that leads to the chambers of death — a 
broad one, and numbers throng it. Had occasion to 
go into it. Many smoking their pipes in the bar-room. 
One respectable looking elderly gentleman at the end 
of a cigar. All smoking away, and the air three- 
quarters tobacco. Asked the landlord if any appoint- 
ments had been given out Sunday before of an anti- 
slavery meeting, taking for granted if there had he 
would have heard of it, the rum tavern being in some 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 107 

places on good terms with the meeting-house. None 
that he knew of. Brother Pillsbury had gone up to 
the neighborhood of the academy to find a Mr. 
Webster, said to be an abolitionist. Resolved to go 
there ; felt utterly desolate in the smoky rum tavern 
and the heartless pro-slavery square. Homesick to 
find one anti-slavery house. Went to Mr. Webster's ; 
told Mrs. W. (husband not in) that she must, if con- 
venient, receive us as travelers at their temperance 
tavern. Our request was readily granted. Called out 
with brother Pillsbury to see about a meeting. Met 
the Rev. Mr. Bodwell, Congregational minister, in 
company with a distinguished Colonizationist, Dr. 
Webster, of Hill. Rev. Mr. Bodwell said he had 
received no notice of the meeting. Ascertained of 
him there was to be a prayer meeting at the academy 
that evening. Proposed to him, if perfectly agreeable 
to him, to have our anti-slavery meeting instead, and 
at the academy, if he thought best ; not otherwise, he 
having remarked just before that if we had an anti- 
slavery meeting in the neighborhood there would be 
probably few at the prayer meeting. He was not 
opposed to us, he was not in favor of us ; he stood 
neutral, and he wished to be so considered. He did 
not wish to be considered as having been called on in 
relation to the meeting ; could not say whether he 
would be present or not : told us Esquire Lane, 
Colonel Sanborn and himself were the committee in 
charge of the academy ; did not wish himself to give 
permission to use the academy for a meeting : wished 
us to consult Esquire L. and Colonel S., and did not 
wish to be considered as having been consulted at all 
in relation to the academy. We remarked to him that 
it did not seem to us he could possibly take a neutral 
position, but he must judge for himself. In the course 
of our talk, Dr. Webster remarked that he objected to 
the abolitionists for their opposition to colonization ; 
that he did not see as they need quarrel with that, or 
why both could not go on harmoniously together. 
Mr. Bodwell said he could not, and that he had no 
objection to abolition if it did not oppose colonization, 
and he thought both might go on together. We told 



'ioS CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

him if that were possible he might, for aught we could 
see, be an abolitionist, whether we liked colonizing the 
colored people or not. He need not oppose abolishing 
slavery because we opposed colonizing the free colored 
people. It was bleak talking on the cold hill side, 
and we parted, Mr. Bodwell to his snug parsonage 
and we down to find Esquire Lane. We found him 
accidently at the bar room of the tavern, and asked 
him for the academy, telling him of the non entity 
position of Rev. Mr. Bodwell, not assenting nor deny- 
ing, nor doing neither, neither doing anything nor 
nothing at all. Esquire L. said at once he had no 
objection, though he did not countenance the meeting. 
He said we were all slaves here. We told him we were 
afraid so. He said he was opposed to using force 
against us — force had been used but he never coun- 
tenanced it ; thought it only promoted our object, the 
way was to keep away from us. The subject he thought 
ought not to be agitated here where we had no slaves. 
We told him men differed as to the propriety of agi- 
tating here, and that that was a fair matter of discus- 
sion, and asked him if it were not. He admitted that 
it was, and that we had the right to discuss, but he 
should not come near us. We told him we should be 
glad to have him attend, and if we were wrong put us 
right. Barroom by this time pretty full. Esquire 
Caleb Kimball, among others, considerably excited by 
opposition to anti-slavery, or some other cause, said he 
knew us and was a friend, but had no opinion of this 
nigger question ; we had no right to be stirring it up 
here ; if anybody wanted a black wife, he might 
have one for' all him. (A laugh.) He had as lief we 
should get pelted with rotten eggs as anyway, though 
he did not approve of mobs. He was far from approv- 
ing mobs ; he would not be catched in one. The 
constitution, he thought, guaranteed slavery to the 
states, and the north no business to interfere ; had no 
business with it any way ; we had no more right to 
take away their property than they had to come and 
take away our cattle. The company gathered around 
and we carried on the talk under a thick cloud of 
tobacco smoke mixed with the breath of the tavern 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 109 

bar. We did not deny Esquire Kimball's opinion, 
but contended that we and he had the right of discus 

n^T 1 w b6rty ° f SpeCCh ab0ut ™V subject we 
pleased We were one of the people as much as he 

was, and had a right to our opinions, and meant to 

have just what opinions we pleased, and to speak our 

sentiments out anywhere and everywhere and at all 

imes, and for all of anybody, and everybody else had 

the same right, and we did not believe there was a 

man in the room who would deny it. We were eoine 

f,P J!% a T ee V ns " if we could * et a p Iace > a ^i should 

be glad to have every friend present attend it 

ff thev t S r nd fredy ' and we believed tha 
if they could hear us every man would say that 

we were right. We said slavery was an abomin- 
able , thing ; !t was in the country and we had a right 
to talk about it, to talk against it, and we meant to 
and had got to ; and if we did not and run it down it 
would run us down, and eat us out of house and home ;' 
had nearly done it already ; had made us nearly all 
slaves here, as Esquire Lane had just said ; that it had 
got us so low that we did not dare to speak about it 
or alow our neighbors to ; that Esquire Kimball had 
eat f he ; h , ou g ht we ought to be pelted with rotten 
eggs if we did not keep still about it. The 'squire 
said he was no friend to mobs. Yes, but said we you 
said yo U had as lief we should be pelted with rotten 
eggs as not if we stirred up this slavery question here ; 
and if we did you would have to mob us. Slavery 
we said, would demand it of you, and you would ha/e 

«rfn I 6 SqU ' re Said hiS fatherwas on e that helped to 
adopt the constitution, and he remembered all about 
it and about slavery; it was in the constitution, he 
said. We contended that the constitution was a free 

and' the IT™ IT CallCd S °' and a - l0ri ° US free °» e > 
and the like. And so we went on discussing, and the 

h!27' Um ~ dl ? nkers . and tobacco-eaters and smokers 
heard us with a patience the Rev. Mr. Bodwell could 
not in his meeting-house; reminding us, as we thought 
w\ , S 1 avi0 1 rs comparison of the publicans and 

harlots with the clergy of Jerusalem. We could con- 
vince the tavern haunters, by the way, if the property 



IIO CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

and standing would only allow us a chance, we could 
make abolitionists of them much easier than of the 
better classes, civil, military or ecclesiastical. * * * 
* * * A tall substantial-looking farmer came in 
and listened awhile to our discussion as we were talk- 
ing of slavery's effect on the north. He said emphat- 
ically that it was as bad to enslave black people as 
white ; and that if you enslave any it enslaves every- 
body else ; and if you allow slavery in the country 
you can't keep liberty. Give us the blue-frocked 
"farmers for anti-slavery. * * * On' the whole, we 
had a grand meeting, and wish we had continued it 
there in the evening ; we should have had an atten- 
tive auditory, and we don't believe Mr. Lane would 
have sold a drop the whole evening. We went out 
with brother Pillsbury,. after getting leave to have the 
academy, and called at every house and notified the 
people of our meeting, and brother Foster drove in his 
sulky out of the neighborhood to do the same. The 
hour arrived ; we resorted to the literary institution. 
It was a steeple 'edifice — meeting-house and town- 
house (church and state) hard by all in a row ; all 
steepled and painted as white as so many " whited 
sepulchres." No light gleamed from the academy 
windows ; all dark as " the people covered with gross 
darkness." We entered it ; not a spark of fire nor a 
soul there. We consulted what to do. Four little 
boys came in, then one man, Deacon Lane, and a 
woman, then two young women, academy scholars, 
boarders at our friend Webster's, one more man, and 
lastly, friend Webster himself, the abolitionist of San- 
bornton Square, and our assembly was complete. 
Brother Pillsbury found the bell rope and pulled it 
till the sound rang clear and loud all over Sanbornton 
hills. It agitated the cold night air, but not the colder 
hearts of the people. Brother Bodwell must have 
heard it like a knell in his study. Nobody else came 
near. Brother Pillsbury went to a store and bought a 
candle and ligh ted the house, wrapping a bit of news- 
paper round it and setting it in a corner of the desk. 
It threw its beams round upon the empty seats and 
the " darkness visible" of the " Woodman Sanbornton 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. Ill 

Academy," the title, we believe, of this Liberal insti- 
tution. We held a season of prayer, not with the full 
formalities of a meeting. We felt the desolate condi- 
tion of the unfortunate people and their minister, and 
we prayed for them. Brother Foster followed. When 
we rose from our knees he opened his mouth to 
the handful present in a most impressive and striking- 
exhortation, addressing them as " the entire humanity 
of the place," told them that on them, in the provi- 
dence of God, had devolved the responsibility of 
awakening that people and minister ; told them the 
slave's case and of the judgment, and bore an appal- 
ling testimony against the place. Brother Pillsbury 
and myself followed with similar appeal and testimony. 
Friend Webster spoke with feeling for the cause and 
sorrow for the state of the people, and we separated, 
chilled by sitting without fire. Brothers Foster and 
Pillsbury went to see Mr. Bodwell, and from what 
they said, did their duty to him faithfully. 

Could the editor of the Herald of Freedom have ac- 
companied Mr. Foster and myself through the state, 
during that cold and dreary winter, he would have 
found many Sanbornton Squares, and some even more 
benighted and morally .desolate. Even at the tavern 
there, we met several persons who, spite of rum, tobacco, 
blasphemy and negro hate, spoke marly kindly words, 
and thought we were honest in our belief and work, 
and entitled to better treatment than we were receiv- 
ing. And the generous, even heroic, hospitality of 
Mr. Josiah Webster and his excellent wife (father and 
mother of our Concord fellow-citizen, Calvin Webster, 
then a boy of thirteen) won our admiration, as well as 
gratitude, for in those days it was often perilous to 
harbor and entertain an abolitionist. Mr. Webster 
had a brother, Rev. John Calvin Webster, who was 
also well known as an abolitionist, and, for a clergy- 
man, of best and truest type, away beyond and above 
most of his clerical brethren. 



112 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

Leaving Sanbornton we crossed over to Gilmanton, 
then seat of the Theological seminary from which I 
emerged a licensed Congregational minister two years 
before, one of a class of eleven, the first graduating 
class, most of us professing to be earnest, outspoken 
abolitionists. Our reception at Gilmanton, but for 
one family, must have been as dreary and cheerless as 
Sanbornton Square would have been without its 
Websters. And we had begun to say that every Sodom 
seemed to have a Lot, and every Sahara at least one 
oasis. And in the spacious, hospitable home of Mr. 
Clark, we were like Banyan's pilgrims on the " Delec- 
table mountains." 

But alas for our cause ! The Congregational meet- 
ing-house was opened, warmed and lighted for us, 
afternoon and evening, and the minister had given 
notice of our coming from the pulpit. The Theolog- 
ical seminary and academy were close at hand, the 
latter with its preceptor and pupils ; the former with 
its three professors and as many classes. In the vil- 
lage were a Methodist and Quaker, as well as Con- 
gregational meeting-house, and all open on Sunday for 
worship. The day was not unfavorable, the traveling 
for the season was remarkably good. At the appointed 
hour we entered the meeting-house. It was empty 
and void as chaos before the eternal fiat had gone 
forth, " Let there be light." The Clarks came in good 
time. Next three women, then two theological stu- 
dents and one other man. The Baptist minister, Rev. 
Mr. Boswell, had ridden over some miles of Gilman- 
ton hills to be present, and remained through the 
evening, giving friendly and approving testimony, and 
late and last Mr. Lancaster, Congregational minister. 
He came to both meetings, but spoke no word. In 
the evening the numbers were less by two or three, 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 113 

the only woman present, Mrs. Lancaster, wife of the 
minister. Nor was there but one theological student. 
Three years before had the like of Rogers and Foster 
come there to speak on slavery, my whole class of eleven 
would surely have attended, with possibly one or two 
exceptions, and though most of us were working our 
passage into the pulpit, the dollar or half dollar of 
each would have helped on the collection. But at 
that time the torpedo touch of new organization had 
not done its fell work ; and many of the younger min- 
isters, as well as theological students, were earnest and 
devoted abolitionists. While slavery was regarded 
only as an evil, and at the distant south, no tell-tale 
telegraph nor lightning express trains, nor even 
" under-ground railroad" between, discussion of it 
might be tolerated. But when Garrison proclaimed it 
a sin and crime, always and everywhere, the pulpit 
began to be alarmed. And when next we began to 
resolve and re-resolve that no slave-holder could be a 
christian ; and later that his northern abettor and 
apologist was as bad as himself ; and that a slave- 
holding religion was essentially anti-Christ ; a slave- 
holding church a synagogue of Satan, and a slave- 
holding ministry and all the fellow communicants a 
brotherhood of thieves, of man-stealers, the battle was 
joined in deadly earnest. 

Our next encounter was Pittsfield. The Congrega- 
tionalist minister, Mr. Curtis, was a pioneer in the new 
organization, and in various ways we felt his baneful 
influence. The Free-will Baptist minister and one or 
two of his congregation showed us some hospitality, 
especially Mr. and Mrs. McCrillis of his church. 
We had an audience of a dozen, but two young men 
of them had come with us all the ten hilly miles from 
Gilmanton. Pittsfield was a flourishing cotton factory 



114 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

village, and Mr. Curtis had at one time been an able 
anti-slavery apostle ; nor did he apostatize till the axe 
was laid at the root of the deadly tree of slavery, the 
church and its pulpit. He was president of the New 
Hampshire anti-slavery society at the time of secession, 
but he had been conspiring with his clerical brethren 
all the previous year, 1839, to seize the helm of the 
society and bring it under clerical and congregational 
control. At the anniversary of that year, he exhibited 
much sectarian bitterness and new organization 
predilection, more than once ruling Stephen Foster 
out of order while speaking, and once even calling our 
invited guest, Mr. Garrison, down for what he termed 
irrelevancy. .Still he was next day re-elected presi- 
dent, the society wishing to avoid the very appearance 
of proscription. 

In the following autumn, the Deerfield Association 
of Ministers, Mr. Curtis a leading member, issued a 
call for a convention of Congregational and Presby- 
terian ministers and churches, for the purpose as was 
declared, of correcting a mistake existing at the south, 
relative to the position of the New Hampshire 
churches on the subject of slavery. The convention 
met in Concord and sat two days and then quite por- 
tentously adjourned to meet in Concord on the day 
preceding the next anniversary day of the state society. 
The motive for such adjournment could not be mis- 
taken ; Mr. Curtis was president of that convention, 
and as such, was careful and prompt to have season- 
able notice given of the adjourned meeting. At the 
same time he sent to the congregational organ of New 
Hampshire, then The Panoply, a call over his own 
name, addressed " to the sound, judicious and enlight- 
ened abolitionists of New Hampshire," summoning 
them to attend the meeting of the state anti-slavery 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 115 

society, and save it from being perverted to unworthy 
purposes. And a request accompanied this call, that 
when the Panoply had copied it, it be sent to the 
Herald of Freedom. 

The call to the Concord convention of ministers and 
churches, issued by the Deerfield Association, included 
the editor of the Herald, and Stephen Foster, both of 
whom were still church members. Early in the 
second session, Mr. Rogers offered this resolution : 

Resolved, That this convention cordially approve 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society and kindred 
organizations ; and the direct and proper way of 
assuring our southern brethren that we are not in 
favor of slavery, is to unite with these organizations 
for its overthrow. 

That resolution was laid on the table The resolu- 
tion limiting membership to the convention to minis- 
ters and male church members, excluding women, was 
adopted. Mr. Foster asked for the yeas and nays, 
and the vote stood forty to twenty-six against women 
membership. So when the roll was called, the names 
of women were passed over. Late on the second day 
of the convention, the resolution of Mr. Rogers was 
taken from the table, amended and passed. 

But the editor of the Panoply, Rev. David Kimball, 
himself a member of the convention, in his leading 
editorial, published with the convention proceedings, 
declared that more than half the members were gone 
when the resolution of Mr. Rogers was taken up, and 
so there was not a fair expression of the minds of the 
convention. Which was doubtless true. And an- 
other thing was also true. Only a very small num- 
ber of the Congregational and Presbyterian ministers 
of the state oared enough about the anti-slavery cause 
to attend the convention as friends or foes. Less 
than forty-five of the two hundred and thirty towns in 



Il6 CONVENTIONS AM) MEETINGS, 

the state bad any representation, and more than half 
of them, probably, were represented only by laymen, 
though several sent women, only to be rejected. And 
another fact is as patent as, and more significant than, 
the rest. Only the very best of the clergy, those who 
had shown most friendliness toward the anti-slavery 
movement, were present at all. And some of them 
soon became, and so continued, our most inveterate 
enemies. The last resolution which the convention 
adopted unanimously read: 

Resolved, That as long as ministers and church 
members continue in the sin of slave-holding, we feel 
it our duty to withhold from them christian fellowship 
and commuion. 

What that resolution implied shall be referred to 
Rev. Mr. Curtis, who was president of that conven- 
tion, and at that time of the New Hampshire anti- 
slavery society, to explain and declare. He had for 
some years been active in measures for a pretended 
severance of church fellowship between the north and 
south, through the missionary, Bible and other simi- 
lar cooperating organizations, including also the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian church, and the 
Congregational churches of New England. What 
kind of separation he intended is seen by an extract 
of a letter of his own in the Congregational Journal 
at the time, to this effect: 

My advice was, to dissolve all connection with the 
General Assembly, as a body, while they, as a body, 
sanction slavery. I do not perceive that such a meas- 
ure need at all decide the question, or make it doubtful, 
whether individual Congregational and Presbyterian 
churches should continue in the kindest fellowship 
towards one another, when neither professes any sym- 
pathy for slavery. Let the individual fellowship of 
the churches be left to their own regulation, as it must 
be left. 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 117 

That was the kind of excision contemplated by Mr. 
Curtis, who represented the most radical anti-slavery 
winy of the New Hamsphire and of the New Eng- 
land Congregational pulpit and church. Cut off the 
General assembly as such, refuse cooperation with 
Bible and missionary societies as such, but retain sac- 
ramental and other communion with the " individual 
Congregational and Presbyterian churches " composing 
them as before ! A surgical operation never con- 
templated at the school of Salerno, nor any other med- 
ical institution since. But even such action was not 
taken. The advice of Mr. Curtis was never accepted 
nor respected to any observable extent. The fellow- 
ship continued as before. 

But readers may have forgotten that this episode of 
explanatory history commenced back in the town of 
Pittsfield, where the anti-slavery lecturers and the 
editor of the Herald encountered in an unusual degree 
the baneful influence of a professing anti-slavery minis- 
ter. Mr. Bodwell, of Sanbornton Square, made no anti- 
slavery pretentions ; nor did Mr. Corser at the Bridge, 
where the pulpit cushions were " daubed with such 
untempered mortar," as if typifying the quality of the 
gospel preached there. But the sacramental fellow- 
ship was as real and constant with them as with the 
most radical anti-slavery church members and minis- 
ters in the land And the same christian embrace was 
extended to all the individual churches and clergy 
composing the General assembly of the Presbyterian 
church as well. 

Our Pittsfield meeting was held in the basement 
vestry of the Free Will Baptist church, the only build- 
ing in the town to which uncompromising anti-slavery 
could be admitted. The Free Will minister, Rev. Mr. 
Cilley, attended, as did a very few members of his 



Il8 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

church : Mr. and Mrs. McCrillis, who kindly enter- 
tained us while in town, of course among them. Rev. 
Mr. Curtis and his new organized church and society 
kept carefully aloof. The account given of our recep- 
tion and experiences there by the editor of the Herald, 
might be too long to reproduce here, but a few 
excerpts can hardly be spared. And the more because 
Bittsfield was pre-eminently a representative town, 
anti-slaverywise, under the newly organized type of 
the doctrine, and Mr. Curtis and his church and people 
of the very best membership, as well in New York 
and New England as New Hampshire. So in what 
follows, Mr. Rogers spoke really of the whole Congre- 
gational and Presbyterian churches of the northern 
states : 

We groped our way to the underground meeting, 
where we found assembled anti-slavery's accustomed 
numbers — a full dozen of the surviving heart of Pitts- 
field. Brother Cilley was among them. Brother 
Curtis came not also among us. He was said to have 
been at a school exhibition in the town, and in uncom- 
mon flow of spirits ; as merry, according to the 
account, he must have been as Herod the night of 
John's beheading, and as regardless of the despised 
and infidel meeting going on in the little Free Will 
vestry as that festive monarch was of the scenes in the 
prison of the Baptist. * * * We wondered if 
brother Curtis did not now and then think of our 
anti-slavery meeting, amid the gay festivities of his 
exhibition/ And when he went home to his evening 
devotions, did not that meeting intrude into his solemn 
fancy ? And when he laid his head upon his pillow 
that night, did not that meeting occur again to his 
unquiet remembrance ? Nay, in his night visions did 
it not usurp the place of that joyous exhibition ? And 
in the morning when he went through his reverend 
services at the altar, did not that intrusive meeting 
interrupt the even tenor of his solemnities, and more 
than once occur during his "long prayer?" He 



DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 119 

knows. Sundry women were in our meeting, and some 
others of brethren. We could scarcely have fallen 
short of a dozen. We took up the comparative- claims 
of the anti-slavery and new organization societies, 
mainly for the sake of brother Cilley (not yet quite new 
organized) ; read over the creed of new organization, 
as set forth in the New Hampshire Abolition Society 
constitution, and found it extremely extraneous. We 
were astonished at its impudent charges against anti- 
slavery, and its open and shameless commission of the 
very offences it had falsely charged upon us. Brother 
Cilley seemed hardly satisfied after all on " the woman 
question." The propriety of woman's acting on com- 
mittees seemed to worry his mind. We had supposed 
that in the Free Will church woman's sphere was as 
broad as man's, and that that order thought it no 
shame for a woman to speak in a meeting, but an 
honor rather and a duty. Brother Cilley had scruples, 
however, as to the propriety. * * * Anti-slavery 
leaves woman and man and child free to equal action. 
Freewillism obliges woman to speak, while it only 
expects man, thus maintaining" the darling masculine 
prerogative and superiority. Sister McCrillis rose at 
length, after the evening was well nigh spent, and she 
had not once opened her lips, and very significantly 
asked permission to go home. Her question seemed a 
poser to brother Cilley's queries as to the proprieties, 
and we thought at once relieved him of them all. The 
noble woman and her female fellow-attendants went 
out, leaving us quite ashamed of the idea of question- 
ing the right or the propriety of woman's doing in an 
anti-slavery meeting as she thinks best. 

What is exactly true of the connection of the north- 
ern Congregational, Presbyterian, and other large 
evangelical christian bodies, acting together as Bible, 
missionary and tract societies and associations, is, there 
never was any real separation ; in the large bodies 
they all acted together. Individual churches some- 
times for themselves, made protest and even a feeble 
form of separation. But Mr. Curtis, one of the most 



120 CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS, 

anti-slavery ministers among them all, told us to what 
purpose. " Let the individual fellowship of the 
churches be left to themselves," he said after cutting- 
connexion with the larger ecclesiastical bodies. But 
even that to any effective extent, was never done. 

In 1842, Judge Birney revised and made more con- 
clusive the argument in his work entitled " The Ameri- 
can Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery;" 
himself a leading member and ruling elder of the 
Presbyterian church when the book was written. In 
1844, appeared, "The Brotherhood of Thieves; or a 
True Picture of the American Church and Clergy," 
taking up the argument where Mr. Birney had left off, 
besides greatly strengthening his, by multiplied proofs 
from the same sources. 

In 1847, " The Church as It Is ; the Forlorn Hope of 
Slavery," appeared, bringing the action of the churches 
and clergy on the slavery question down to that time. 
A peculiarity of all these books was, the churches and 
ministers furnished the testimony, so that they w r ere 
judged by their own words and works. A division 
occurred in the general conference of the Methodist 
church. But the south, not the north, separated. 
And there still remained seven or eight annual con- 
ferences in the northern division, the boundaries dis- 
tinctly discribed in the Book of Discipline. And on 
slavery the books of north and south read exactly 
alike, and it was shown clearly by Methodist testi- 
mony that there were still thousands of slave-holders 
and many thousand slaves in the northern general 
conference. The one unquestionable fact was, that 
though there were exceptions to the fearful charge, 
the system of slavery was supported by the govern- 
ment and sanctified by the religion of the nation, till 
the Infinite Patience could bear it no longer. The 



CONVENTIONS AND MEETINGS. 121 

trump of the avenging angel first sounded at Fort 
Sumter, summoning north and south to their judgment 
day. Nor could the dread call be resisted. At the 
memorable field of Bull Run the two armies met face 
to face. It was on a beautiful summer Sunday morn- 
ing. The northern and the southern states, regiments 
of Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Presby- 
terians, Episcopalians, from Maine to Michigan ; regi- 
ments of the same denominations were up to meet 
them from the shores of the Mexican gulf to Mason 
and Dixon's line. Many of both armies must have 
sometime sat together at the sacramental supper-tables 
of the same denominational faith. But now their 
hour had come. Now the warnings, entreaties and 
expostulations of the faithful abolitionists were ended, 
and their terrible predictions were to be fulfilled. On 
that bright Sunday the two armies met in battle array. 
Avenging Justice beheld them, and seizing the one in 
His right hand the other in His left, dashed them to- 
gether, dashed them in pieces, and gave frightful 
multitudes of them their last sacrament ; not anymore 
in the blood of slaves sold for wine of communion, 
but in the steaming battle blood of each other ! 

For days both sides claimed a victory. The rebel 
commander-in-chief sent to his congress at Richmond 
forthwith dispatches dated Sunday night, and com- 
mencing thus : "The night has closed upon a hard 
fought field. The enemy were routed, and precipi- 
tately fled, abandoning a large amount of arms, knap- 
sacks and baggage. The ground was strewn for miles 
with those killed, and the farm-houses and grounds 
around were filled with the wounded. Pursuit was 
continued along several routes till darkness covered 
the fugitives." 



122 DIGRESSION ON NEW ORGANIZATION. 

Let readers mark those words, "the fugitives." New 
England, Boston even, had many noble sons in that 
fight ; and only a little while before New England, 
and even Boston, was returning fugitive slaves to their 
masters. Who was He who once said, " With what 
measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again?" 
And what the Boston pulpit, what Andover Theologi- 
cal Seminary said, what nearly every evangelical doc- 
tor of divinity taught on the duty of returning fugi- 
tive slaves, shall be shown in some future chapter of 
these fearful chronicles. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ACTS CONTINUED, WITH PERSONAL SKETCH OF STEPHEN 
SYMONDS FOSTER. 

The last chapter contained an account of a sally 
into the lecturing field in which Mr. Foster and myself 
were accompanied by our inestimable coadjutor, Mr. 
Rogers, of the Herald of Freedom. My next cam- 
paign was with Foster alone, and as some account of 
Mr. Garrison and Mr. Rogers has been given, it may 
be proper to advert briefly to some of the more general 
incidents in the early life of Stephen S. Foster. It 
has been already intimated that in this work only the 
acts of a small number of the anti-slavery apostles can 
be even named. There were many, both men and 
women, whose separate faithful labors, patient endur- 
ance of privations, perils, sacrifices and sufferings, 
earned for each one a volume larger and abler than 
this can possibly be. Men and women whose very 
names should only be spoken by those of cleanest lips 
and purest hearts. 

Mr. Foster was born in Canterbury, New Hamp- 
shire, in November, 1809, son of Colonel Asa Foster, 
of revolutionary days. He was the ninth child of a 
family of thirteen. 

The old Foster homestead is in the north part of 
Canterbury, on a beautiful hillside, overlooking a long 
stretch of the Merrimack river valley, including Con- 
cord, and a wide view east and west, as well as south. 
It includes several hundred acres, and is still owned 
by one of the Foster brothers. 



124 ACTS CONTINUED, 

Stephen left it early and learned the trade of a car- 
penter and builder. In that, however, he did not come 
to his life occupation. His parents were most devout 
and exemplary members of the Congregational church, 
to which he also was joined in youthful years. At 
that time the call for ministers and missionaries, espe- 
cially to occupy the new opening field at the west, 
called then " the great valley of the Mississippi," was 
loud and earnest. At twenty-two he heard and heeded 
it, and immediately entered on a course of collegiate 
study to that end, and it is only just to say that a more 
consistent, conscientious, divinely consecrated spirit 
never set itself to prepare for that then counted holiest 
of callings. Though assenting to the creed and cov- 
enant of his denomination, his whole rule of practical 
life and work was the " Sermon on the Mount," as 
interpreted and illustrated in the life and death of its 
author. 

With him " Love your enemies" was more than 
words, and " Resist not evil" was not returning evil, 
nor inflicting penalties under human enactments. And 
he went early to prison for non-appearance at military 
parade, armed with weapons of death. 

In Dartmouth College he was called to perform mil- 
itary service. On christian principles he declined, 
and was arrested and dragged away to jail. So bad 
were the roads that a part of the way the sheriff was 
compelled to ask him to leave the carriage and walk. 
He would cheerfully have walked all the way, as once 
did George Fox, good naturedly telling the officer, 
" Thee need not go thyself ; send thy boy, I know 
the way ;" for Foster feared no prison cells. He had 
earnest work in hand which led through many of them 
in subsequent years. 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 1 25 

Eternal Goodness might have had objects in view 
in sending him to Haverhill, for he found the jail in a 
condition to demand the hand of a Hercules, as in the 
" Augsean " stables for its cleansing. His companions 
there were poor debtors, as well as thieves, murderers, 
and lesser felons. One man so gained his confidence 
as to whisper in his ear that on his hands was the blood 
of murder, though none knew it but himself. Another 
poor wretch had been so long confined by illness to 
his miserable bed, that it literally swarmed with vermin, 
crawling from his putrid sores. 

Foster wrote and sent to the world such a letter as 
few but he could write, awakening general horror 
and indignation wherever it was read, and a cleansing 
operation was forthwith instituted. The filth on 
the floor was found so deep and so hard trodden, that 
strong men had to come with pick-axes and dig it up. 
And that jail was not only revolutionized, but the 
whole prison system of the state from that time began 
to be reformed ; and imprisonment for debt was soon 
heard of here no more. 

His college studies closed, he entered, for a theo- 
logical course, the Union Seminary in New York. 
Soon afterward there was threatened war between our 
country and Great Britain, over a short stretch of the 
northeastern boundary line, about which the two 
nations had disputed for half a century. Wholly 
opposed to war as was he, for any cause, he and a 
few of his friends proposed a meeting for prayer and 
conference, in relation to it as then menaced. Foster 
asked for the use of a lecture room for their purpose, 
but was surprised as much as grieved to find the sem- 
inary faculty not only opposed to granting the use of 
the room, but sternly against the holding of any such 
meeting-. 



126 ACTS CONTINUED, 

That refusal, probably more than any other one 
event, determined his whole future course. For while 
in college he had had many serious doubts and mis- 
givings as to the claim of the great body of the Ameri- 
can church and clergy to the christian name and 
character ; not only because of their supporting war 
and approval of his incarceration for peace principles, 
but also for their persistent countenance of slave- 
holding and fellowship of even slave-breeders and 
slave-holders, as christians and christian ministers. 
• In 1839, Mr. Foster abandoned all hope of the Con- 
gregational ministry, and entered the anti-slavery 
service, side by side with Garrison, of the Boston Lib- 
erator, and Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, of the New 
Hampshire Herald of Freedom. And from that time 
onward till slavery was abolished, and indeed to the 
day of his death, the cause of freedom and humanity, 
justice and truth, had no more faithful, few if any 
more able champions. 

In the autumn of 1845, he married Miss Abby 
Kelley, of Worcester, Massachusetts, then a well and 
widely - known lecturer on anti-slavery, temperance, 
peace, and other subjects pertaining to the rights and 
the welfare of man and womankind. She and a 
daughter, their only child, survive him. The daughter 
graduated first at Vassar College, then entered Cor- 
nell University, which she left at the end of the year, 
with the degree of Master of Arts. 

I first saw Stephen Foster in the autumn of 1S34. 
We were commencing teaching schools in adjoining 
districts of a small country town. A " revival of 
religion" soon appeared in the town, and was emi- 
nently powerful in his school, if, indeed, it did not 
commence there. His school was much larger than 
mine, and many of the parents were members, and 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 1 27 

some of them officers, of the Congregational church. 
They found in Mr. Foster a teacher, or at any rate a 
leader in religion, as well as in the literature of their 
school. And though most satisfactory progress was 
made in all the branches, and the discipline of the 
school was deemed throughout of the very best, nearly 
every scholar of or above fifteen years old was con- 
verted and joined the Congregational church ; and then 
their teacher and some of themselves came over as 
missionaries into my more remote and benighted dis- 
trict, and quite a work was accomplished there. The 
venerable minister of the town thought, and from the 
standpoint, and in the light of that day, thought truly, 
that, " with young Mr. Foster, evidently, was 'the 
secret of the Lord !' " And that same characteristic 
faithfulness he brought with him into the anti-slavery 
cause. And soon learning where was the great, deep, 
tap-root of the deadly upas, he laid the axe at the root 
of the tree. 

His encounters with the church and ministry, the 
frequency with which his meetings had been and were 
still broken up by brutal mobs, not unfrequently jus- 
tified by the pulpit and religious press, had made him 
a disciple to the Birney doctrine, " The American 
Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery," long 
before this startling tract had come before the public. 

Mr. Birney's experiences with the same power sug- 
gested his title ; but a few years later, another pam- 
phlet appeared from Foster's own pen, entitled, " The 
Brotherhood of Thieves ; or a True Picture of the 
American Church and Clergy." Mr. Birney had 
already proved the pertinence and propriety of such a 
title in his little work ; but in a ringing book, of more 
than seventy pages, Foster showed, by super-abundant 
testimony, and every single witness furnished by the 



128 ACTS CONTINUED, 

church itself, that if slavery were man stealing, as the 
Presbyterian church had declared it forty years before, 
and "the highest kind of theft," then surely the whole 
southern church was indeed a vast "Brotherhood of 
Thieves!" with their northern baptized brethren, who 
fellowshiped them as christians, their not less guilty 
accomplices ! 

Mr. Foster therefore made the' popular, prevailing 
religions his main point of attack. What could he 
have done otherwise ? The churches of the north 
were opened to southern slave-breeders, slave-traders, 
slave-hunters, and slave-holders, if members of the 
same, and often even of widely different denomina- 
tions, both for preaching, baptizing and sacramental 
supper occasions and purposes. There were a few 
exceptions ; but not enough to affect the general 
charge. Northern academies, colleges, universities, 
and theological seminaries, toned down their whole 
curriculum of moral and religious training and teach- 
ing to suit the depraved demand and taste of the 
whole brotherhood of southern slave-holders. And 
with most rare exceptions, the northern press attuned 
itself to the same key. 

The religious public soon learned to dread Mr. Fos- 
ter's presence or approach. Convicted of the most 
malignant pro-slaveryism, and by its own public records 
and reports of proceedings of ecclesiastical bodies and 
associations, from general assemblies, general confer- 
ences, and American Bible, missionary and tract 
societies, to state and county conferences and conso- 
ciations, they had good reason to fear such a judg- 
ment-day before the time. 

So there was a conspiracy among all classes of the 
people to conquer the abolitionists, "by letting them 
severely atone." And in some states the clergy went 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 120 

so far as to issue pastoral letters to the churches, 
declaring that anti-slavery lecturers had no right to 
invade a people who had chosen a pastor and regularly 
inducted him into office ; nor had such a people any 
right to permit it. A Massachusetts clerical mandate, 
duly published in the religious papers, signed by two 
congregational ministers, contained this paragraph : 

When a people have chosen a pastor, and he has 
been regularly inducted into office, they have so far 
surrendered up to him the right to discharge the 
appropriate duties of his office in the parish over which 
he is settled, that they themselves can not send another 
to discharge those duties, all or any part of them, 
against his wishes, without an evident invasion of his 
territory. Whoever comes before a parish under these 
circumstances is an intruder. And equally so is he 
who, after being admitted by the pastor, sets up his 
judgment in matter that falls properly under the pas- 
tor's control. These are both acts of trespass, and 
the perpetrators of them are or should be liable to 
ecclesiastical censure. The unfaithfulness or incapac- 
ity of the pastor is no apology for the offence. 

Nor was this law a dead letter in any place where it 
could possibly be enforced, whether in Massachusetts 
or anywhere in the north or west. 

But the brave faithfulness of Mr. Foster to the 
enslaved and to his own solemn convictions, soon tri- 
umphed over such religious despotism. He conceived 
the idea of entering the meeting houses on Sunday, 
and at the hour of sermon, respectfully rising and 
claiming the right to be heard then and there, on the 
duties and obligations of the church to those who were 
in bonds at the south. 

This measure he first adopted in the old North 
church, at Concord, in September, 1841. He was 
immediately seized by "three young gentlemen, one 
a southerner from Alabama, and the other tw r o, guards 



130 M IS CONTINUED, 

at the state prison, thrust along the broad aisle and 
violently pushed out of the house." A full account of 
the transaction was published in the Herald of Freedom 
on the following Friday, 17th of the same month. 
But Mr. Foster could not be deterred from his pur- 
pose. And the measure proved so effective as a 
means of awakening the public attention to the 
importance of the anti-slavery enterprise, that others 
were led to adopt it. Of course it led to persecution, 
and some were imprisoned for the offence — Mr. Foster 
as many as ten or twelve times, in New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts. Perhaps his most memorable 
experience at the hands of the civil law, at the time, 
was in Concord, in June, 1842. On Sunday, the 
twelfth of that month, being in Concord, he went to 
the South church, and at the time for sermon he rose 
in a pew at the side of the pulpit, and commenced 
speaking in his usual solemn and deeply impressive 
manner. He evidently would have been heard, and 
with deep attention, too, for many in the house not 
only knew him well, but knew that this was a course 
not unusual with him, and one in the rightfulness of 
which he conscientiously believed, and, besides, was 
sometimes able to make most useful and effective. 
Even the Concord Unitarian society, one Sunday, gave 
respectful hearing ; the minister, Rev. Mr. Tilden, 
inviting him to speak. 

But at the South church, it was not so. There he 
was seized by the then Secretary of State, others 
assisting, and forthwith carried by main force out of 
the house. The editor of the Herald of Freedom was 
present and saw the whole transaction, and in his next 
paper, gave a remarkably clear and full report of it. 
It is well worth reading and even study, by any who 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 13I 

would understand the spirit and temper of those tur- 
bulent times. 

As the whole affair was conducted, and as it finally 
resulted, it was not inappropriately called in the 
Herald, a mob. "A mob in the sanctuary called the 
South church. House ostentatiously dedicated to the 
worship of God. A mob begun in the pulpit by the 
anointed embassador of 'the prince of peace,' in 
midst of professed christian worship !" 

At the close of the long prayer of morning service, 
during which, in those days, the congregation all rev- 
erently rose and stood, Foster remained standing and 
when the people were seated, he commenced in low, 
solemn and devout manner to say that he wished to 
speak a few words in behalf of two and a half millions 
of our kidnapped and enslaved countrymen. Nearly 
all appeared deeply attentive, and the scene was pro- 
foundly serious and impressive, as became the hour, 
the place and the theme. 

But instantly, the minister from the pulpit called 
out with much anger, "Mr. Foster, we must not be 
disturbed in our worship ! " At the same time a man 
high in authority, stalked across the house in front of 
the pulpit and seized him by the arm. But he had 
laid violent hand on no brawling disturber of the 
peace, nor of worship, but the equal in every way of 
the minister, and morally and spiritually, vastly his 
superior, as every moment demonstrated more and 
more. He was perfectly serene, gentle, orderly and 
respectful ; and that seemed the more to waken the 
pulpit indignation. He mildly asked the officer, who 
as yet confronted him alone, if such conduct as his 
became a christian, and if Jesus Christ ever interrupted 
respectful speaking in such a way, or forced anybody 
out of the house only for speaking ? But the people 



132 ACTS CONTINUED, 

must not be permitted to hear him ; and as no one yet 
had come to the rescue with the officer, he called up to 
the choir to set the music going to silence him. Fos- 
ter responded that he hoped the choir would not resort 
to such means to silence his voice ; or if they should, 
they could not repress the truth. But before this was 
all uttered, the music was set going in full diapason 
with all the spite of the vilest mob. 

The music, of course, blasphemously silenced Fos- 
ter ; but while it was performing, the officer, in true 
posse comitates manner and spirit, ordered up the sex- 
ton and several others, chiefly church members, if not 
wholly, and some of them new organized abolitionists, 
and seizing hold of him, carried him by main brute 
force out of the house, he making no resistance nor 
proffering any resistance by using his own strength or 
limbs. 

It was said in defense of the infamous act : 
" They carried him gently out !" To that Mr. Rogers 
responded the same week in the Herald of Freedom to 
this effect : 

Yes, very gently. They did not use a particle of 
brute force, beyond what was necessary to effect their 
brute purpose. But remember they laid hands on a 
man and put him out of a house before all of the con- 
gregation, against his will, in contempt of his right of 
speech, and in the deepest intended dishonor of his 
person. The officer would have struck any man dead 
who had thus profaned his official person. So would 
that reverend minister. I thought the officer might 
refrain from Foster while he remained silent. All was 
hush, save the devout music ; that had restored the 
interrupted worship and it was solemnly going on. 
But they feared Foster might speak by and by, and so 
thought they would put him out by anticipation. 
* * * They laid hold of Foster when he was stand- 
ing perfectly still (whether he had a right to speak or 
no right), when all was hushed but the clamor in the 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. I 33 

gallery, and lawlessly conveyed him out of the house 
of God. He meekly submitted to the infamous indig- 
nity. The minister looked on with all clerical com- 
placency, from his curtained' elevation. Nero would 
hardly have looked on with more when he fiddled at 
the burning of Rome. They laid their sacrilegious 
hands on Foster. I care not that they handled him 
gently. The outrage is that they handled him at all. 
It was an outrage most abhorrent to human feelings. 
The very law abhors it, sprung, as it was, from the 
dark ages of feudal England, and punishes its slight- 
est touch of a man. But ecclesiastical supremacy 
knows no law. They trampled law under foot ; and 
had they been outraging a man wicked as themselves, 
he would visit it upon them. But Foster is a chris- 
tian, and they are safe. It was a flagrant breach of 
the peace, and a highly gross assault and battery, 
aggravated by outrage of the right of speech. * * * 
I saw Foster in their hands. It was an unusual sight. 
It was an abhorrent, unnatural sight. It was as a 
lamb in the hands of wolves. His countenance beamed 
with magnanimous christian expression. Several of 
the congregation indignantly left the house ; I was 
among the number. At the bottom of the entrance 
stairs I found the abductors in a state of guilty agita- 
tion, on the verge of furious excitement. The officers 
hard breathing and most vivaciously at work shutting 
the folding doors and fastening them. * * * I 
could not help exclaiming, shame on you friends ; 
shame on you for your conduct ! " Do you want to 
go out or stay in, Mr. Rogers," said the excited officer. 
Go out, of course, said I, out of such a house as this. 
They shut all the doors and bolted them behind them 
with most cowardly care. We walked away pondering 
on the spirit of the worship we had left. Some women 
who came out after us found the doors locked, and 
had to go out through a round-about-way to a postern 
which was also locked from terror of Foster. 

All this transpired at the morning service. In the 
afternoon, Mr. Foster felt constrained to enter the 
church again and attempt to speak a few words before 



134 ACTS CONTINUED, 

the services commenced. All of his friends discour- 
aged the attempt ; even Mr. Rogers counselled against 
it. He said he would no more go into that South 
church with those murderous stone stairs at the out- 
let, than he would walk into the Spanish inquisi- 
tion. But Foster answered in the very spirit of the 
heroic apostle, Paul, when he asked his less brave 
brethren, " What mean ye to weep and to break my 
heart, for I am ready not to be bound only, but also 
to die for the name of the Lord Jesus." And he went 
again in the afternoon up those same " murderous 
stone stairs." 

He commenced speaking as soon as he entered, and 
before the performances had begun. Immediately 
some young men, without order or authority even from 
the pulpit, most ferociously seized him, dragged him 
down the aisle and cast him down as far as the broad 
stairs of the ascent, from which he was forthwith, in 
the very spirit of most malignant murder, hurled down 
the entire stairway ; and then with kicks, hair-pulling 
and other indignities, thrown out on the ground. By 
this time the whole entrance was thronged with a 
violent vociferating mob, furiously, and some pro- 
fanely, defending the sacredness of the meeting-house. 
Foster, pale, faint and disabled, lay on the ground, 
still at the mercy of the mob. Some of us took him 
up and tenderly assisted him to the then hospitable 
home near by, of Amos and Louisa Wood. Mr. Wood 
soon arrived and told us that after the outrage on 
Mr. Foster, he had risen in his pew to protest against 
such proceedings, and that the same officer who con- 
ducted the attack in the morning rushed upon him, 
and with others thrust him also, although a member 
of the church, out of the house. 

Mr. Foster appeared so seriously injured that we 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 1 35 

deemed it advisable to summon a physician. So it 
fell on me to return and venture up the broad aisle of 
that same perilous sanctuary, and call a doctor from 
the base of the pulpit itself. No bones were broken 
nor dislocated ; but bruises and sprains rendered 
walking difficult and painful for several weeks. 

But only the tragic portion of this wondrous spec- 
tacle has yet been told. A farce followed more re- 
markable still, for the church and pulpit counted their 
grievance so great as even to appeal to the civil courts 
for redress. They well knew their victims were non- 
resistants, both Mr. Wood and Mr. Foster, whose 
rights they had so atrociously infringed, not to speak 
of bodily ills inflicted, especially on Foster. Both 
were christians in the sense and meaning of the Ser- 
mon on the Mount. Both suffered imprisonment in 
our then loathsome jails, rather than perform military 
service or pay fines in money for non-appearance on 
the murder-meaning, murder-breeding muster field. 
So a suit at law would be perfectly safe at the worst. 
And a suit was commenced on Monday afternoon. 
Foster, only able to move about on a cane, was 
arrested at the house of Mr. Amos Wood, where we 
had taken him after his injury at the hands of the pul- 
pit, the church and their then only too willing outside 
defenders. Several of us had been informed that the 
arrest was to be made, and had gathered there to wit- 
ness the doing of it. 

The sheriff was a most kind hearted man, and 
appeared to appreciate properly the quality of the 
business then in hand. Entering the room where we 
were sitting, Mr. Foster in an invalid chair, he ap- 
proached him, warrant in hand, and said : " Mr. Fos- 
ter, I have authority here to take you before Judge 
Badger, to answer to a charge of disturbing public 



136 ACTS CONTINUED, 

worship." Probably these are not the exact words 
spoken, but Foster, in the mildest manner possible, 
responded : " I do not know of any business between 
me and friend Badger requiring my attendance to-day, 
and must decline to answer to your call." Of course 
the sheriff insisted, as in duty bound, but in manner 
and spirit that contrasted strangely with the truly mob 
demeanor of the meeting-house on the day before. 
When he saw that if Foster went he must be carried, 
literally, he asked some of us present if we would be 
kind enough to assist him in bearing him out to his 
carriage, which we naturally declined. Then he said 
he should have to call in other aid. Foster good 
naturedly suggested that the minister and his aids of 
yesterday would be the proper persons on whom to 
call. The news of what was transpiring by this time 
was on many tongues and in many ears, and the ex- 
citement on the street was not small. It did not prove 
an easy matter to summon the posse comitatus. But 
finally one member of the church, and a working man 
not of the church, came in with the officer, and taking 
Foster gently in their hands and arms bore him bare 
headed to the door and placed him on the carriage 
seat. Foster, Rogers and others asked the non- 
church member why he didn't let the church do her 
own dirty work ? And the sheriff himself instead of 
arresting us, some of us being women, too, for thus 
attempting to obstruct the purposes of justice, only 
answered that it was " a very unpleasant duty to per- 
form," which, knowing the man as we did, we well 
understood before. A crowd followed the prisoner to 
the judgment hall. It was on the second story, and 
the stairway being narrow it was truly a ludicrous 
operation for the officer and his posse to climb it with 
so unseemly a burden. Foster said afterwards him- 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 137 

self that he felt rather serious than otherwise, till 
ascending the stairs, feet foremost high above his 
head, and yet handled with utmost caution, he could 
not help laughing outright, and did not recover his 
gravity again through the whole farcical trial. 

As the editor of the Herald of Freedom was a law- 
yer and witnessed the court proceedings, probably 
readers would prefer his account in his own words. 
And in this they shall be gratified, copied literally, a 
few names omitted, from his columns of the same 
week : 

The court room was thronged. Esquire Badger 
took his seat and read over the complaint in the hear- 
ing of Foster, charging him with " rude and indecent 
behavior," etc., -"force and arms," etc., in the usual 
rigmarole of a criminal process, and asked him : 
" What say you, Mr. Foster, are you guilty or not 
guilty ?" Foster replied : " Friend Badger, I do not 
recognize you as my judge, nor shall I answer before 
you as a culprit. I am not your subject, and owe you 
no allegiance. As a brother man and equal I am 
willing to talk with you, on this or any other subject, 
but not as a magistrate." Friend Badger said the 
answer was not such as he wished. He wished him 
to say whether he was guilty or not guilty. Foster 
replied that he had his answer, and must put such con- 
struction on it as he saw fit. 

The first witness was called and put on oath to tell 
the truth. It did not use to strike me so absurdly to 
hear a man sworn to tell the truth. He, the witness, 
said he was in the meeting house, saw Mr. Foster 
rise to speak, and Esquire S. immediately go to him 
and stop him, and take him out of the house. When 
asked if he did not interrupt the meeting by rude and 
indecent behavior, etc., he replied that he did not hear 
what he said. This was the substance, as I remember, 
of his testimony. 

Capt. A. M. next presented himself as a witness. 
He is a member of the church that dragged Stephen 
out, and the same captain who shut Amos Wood up 



138 ACTS CONTINUED, 

in the Black Hole at Hopkington, winter before last, 
for not being willing to train. Captain M. S.'s testi- 
mony was in effect the same as Captain S., who pre- 
ceded. He didn't hear a word Foster said in the meet- 
ing. I think he gave it as his opinion that he inter- 
rupted, or disturbed the meeting by speaking, but 
did not tell what he said. When Captain M. retired, 
Captain W. came forward. Captain W. was also of 
the South church. He was sworn. He seemed com- 
petent to give all necessary testimony, within his 
knowledge, and not unreasonably backward to furnish 
it. He sat close by Foster, he said, in the meeting 
house, saw him stand up, and heard him speak, and 
thought what he said was a great disturbance of the 
meeting, etc., could not tell, however, what he said ; 
not a single word of it. Fie was asked if Foster 
behaved in a rude and indecent manner. Captain W. 
thought he disturbed the meeting very much, and that 
his speaking was contrary to the regulations of the 
South church. Foster asked him if speaking itself 
was contrary to the regulations, and when he said not, 
asked him who had a right to speak there ? The cap- 
tain answered, nobody but the minister. Foster 
asked him if it would be contrary to the regulations of 
the South church if he should come in during service 
time and give an alarm of fire ? The captain replied 
in a grave manner that he did not choose to enter into 
that kind of conversation. But you are a witness, 
said Foster, and must answer all proper questions. 
He, however, did not answer. I will ask another 
question, said Foster : If your child should be kid- 
napped and carried off to the south, and I should learn 
of it in service time of the South church, and should 
come in and give the alarm, would you think that an 
interruption ? The captain appealed to the court, and 
1 think he was told he must answer ; for he did, and 
as I understood him said he should not think that an 
interruption. Suppose then, continued Foster, that 
two and a half millions of my countrymen should be 
kidnapped and sold into slavery, and I should come 
in in time of service and give the alarm, would that be 
violating the reuulations of the South church? The 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 1 39 

audience manifested great satisfaction at Foster's 
questions. The captain said thereupon, " These ques- 
tions are asked for sport." The testimony here closed 
— not a word being sworn to of what Foster said, nor 
any evidence given of rude or indecent behavior on 
the part of anybody but the minister and the officer 
who first laid hands on Foster. One spectator said, 
" Discharge him ; " another, as he left the room, said, 
" This is a farcical piece of business ; " a third said, 
"There isn't a particle of evidence against Foster ; " 
still another asked me, " What will the court do ? " 
Convict, I answered. "On what ground ? " he asked : 
I said : I cannot tell on what ground, I only think he 
will convict him. 

Early in the trial Esquire Whipple, ( the prosecutor ) 
read the law on which the complaint was founded. 
Toward the close of the examination, Foster glanced 
his eye over it and discovered that it was not in force, 
that it had been repealed. He observed to the court 
pleasantly, that he did not wish to interfere in their 
proceedings, but he believed they were trying him 
upon a statute that was not in fofce. He did not wish 
them to be at the trouble of going over the business 
twice, he said, and he had not the time to spare him- 
self. He had had occasion in his dealings with other 
churches to look at the law, and told them what it was 
and where they would find it. Hereupon a burst of 
applause broke from all parts of the audience, which 
lasted considerable time. Esquire Whipple looked 
amused and Esquire Badger a little //// to it. How- 
ever, Foster set them on the right track as to the law, 
and after awhile all went on again. Come to read the 
law through, it was plain as noon-day to every one 
that it contemplated no such case as Foster's. So 
they had no law against him, and no facts. 

Friend Badger then went out and was gone some 
minutes. I thought it might be to consult higher 
authorities as to the course to be taken with a criminal 
against whom there was neither law nor proof. Still, 
I had a presentiment he would convict. He returned 
and resumed his seat. He asked Mr. Foster if he had 
anything to say in his defense. Foster replied, 



140 ACTS CONTINUED, 

he made no defense, that what he said was not 
said to the court, but to the audience. I am in 
your power I know — you can fine me or imprison 
me. You know I have done no wrong. No one has 
said aught against me. One witness gave his opinion 
that I had interrupted the meeting.; but he had no 
right to give opinions, he was a witness, he should 
give facts. You know I have done nothing amiss. If 
I had, why was not Daniel Noyes, the minister, here to 
testify against me ? He sat where he could see all 
that I did. I have done no wrong. He and Stevens 
and those who violated my rights of speech and of 
person, why do you not prosecute them instead of 
me ? It is not my duty said Friend Badger. It is your 
duty upon your own principles, replied Foster. I can- 
not prosecute. It is contrary to my principles. You can, 
and are bound to. The injury is not against me. It 
is against the State, and you know their guilt and are 
bound to prosecute them. But do with me as you 
please. 

Esquire Badger then gave sentence. He would 
protect an anti-slavery meeting, he said, as soon as any 
other meeting, if it was disturbed. He would do 
justice to Mr. Foster as soon as to anybody else. 
( Thought I, Friend Badger, you had better not give 
reasons, but convict and say nothing. ) He went on to 
say " The complaint was broad enough to cover the 
case." Sure enough ; but then, there was no evi- 
dence to sustain it. He said nothing about any evi- 
dence. The complaint is broad enough he said to 
cover the case, and he declared Foster guilty, and 
fined him five dollars and the costs ! ! An expression 
of disapprobation, amounting pretty near to sovereign 
contempt, manifested itself throughout the court 
room ! The champions of the church had already 
sneaked off. A man like Nathan Stickney must have 
been ashamed of the decision. T. C, who was about, 
( looking sheepishly enough, ) hither and thither dur- 
ing the trial, exerting what malign influence he could 
covertly, would not be so scrupulous as to the kind of 
victory, or mode of obtaining it. He looked as though 
he would enjoy a sentence against Stephen Foster to 



j 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 141 

that pestilential dungeon at Hopkinton for twenty 
years, for the quiet of the South church. And he is 
an anti-slavery man! He is, I believe, secretary of 
New Hampshire new organization. 

As soon as the magnificent sentence was pronounced, 
the friends of humanity present ( not abolitionists 
neither, professedly, though nearer being so than they 
are aware of ) rushed to the table and threw down the 
money to pay it. I would give their honored names, 
but it adds nothing, yet, to any man's reputation with 
the world to be commended in the Herald of Freedom. 
They are well known here. They make no sectarian 
profession, but if not in the kingdom of heaven, they 
are nearer to it infinitely, than the miserable pro- 
slavery devotees of the meeting-house. Foster thanked 
them in the fullness of a grateful heart, but protested 
respectfully against their paying. It will be better for 
the cause, said he, that I suffer. I can go to their jail, 
seeing they have unlawfully doomed me there. Others 
are there now. But no heed was paid to his 
remonstrance. Everybody felt deeply that he was a 
persecuted, injured, innocent and faithful man ; and 
entertained the profoundest contempt and indignation 
at the hypocritical priest and the mobocratic official 
of the State, who had outraged and injured him. 

The tide of humanity ran too strong for the legal 
opinions of friend Badger. He seemed to find he had 
mistaken the current. He had fined an innocent man, 
prosecuted by the church, five dollars, and the people 
were against it. He had not anticipated that. The 
church minions had slunk away. The table was covered 
with more money than was wanted. Friend Badger 
caught the general feeling and remitted The fine. The 
friends immediately passed the money over to Foster, 
who told them he would spend it in the anti-slavery 
cause. 

The whole article, from which this account is but 
an extract, fills more than seven solid columns of the 
Herald of Freedom, and the names and titles of per- 
sons are given in full, and especially those most prom- 
inent in the shameful transaction. Perhaps it were 



l_p ACTS CONTINUED, 

better that they had been all given in the same man- 
ner and continued in this extract. Almost all the 
parties, official and unofficial, are now dead ; many of 
them died long ago, even those who led the mob out- 
rages at the church door where Foster received his 
bodily injuries. The court room during the trial, 
which lasted through the most of an afternoon, was 
crowded with an audience whose sympathies at the 
beginning were doubtless quite evenly divided, for 
Concord was at that time by no means an anti-slavery 
town. But when the complaint was read, solemnly 
charging the accused, who was a well-known, con- 
sistent peace man and non-resistant, with " force and 
arms," and " rude and indecent behavior," the whole 
scene assumed a ludicrous aspect only. As the trial 
proceeded, however, it soon became manifest that 
malice and spite instigated the arrest, and that sum- 
mary vengeance was to be inflicted, however unjust. 
Then when Foster so serenely corrected the court in 
its knowledge of law, telling just when the law was 
repealed, and where, and at whose desire, and exactly 
for what purpose the law then existing to protect 
public religious meetings was enacted, all of which he 
showed to the full satisfaction of the court, the burst 
of admiring applause was as general and hearty as it 
was long continued. Nor was there any attempt to 
suppress it. That was the verdict of humanity and 
justice, instinctively rendered, with voice and power 
irresistible. 

And when Judge Badger remitted the fine, which 
doubtless gave him great pleasure, though he trans- 
cended his authority in doing so, there was another 
demonstration of delight, at which Sheriff Pettingill 
stepped forward and told him he would remit his fees 
with the fine, and take nothing for his services. To 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 143 

which the judge good naturedly responded that he 
would not be outdone in magnanimity, and would 
throw in his charges with the rest, and Mr. Foster 
might be discharged. The demonstration which suc- 
ceeded needs no description, no report. 

But there was yet one more incident worthy of men- 
tion. Judge Badger beholding the generous pile 
of silver which had been tossed on his table, asked, 
" What shall be done with all this money ?" " Give 
it to Foster, give it to Foster," was shouted out from 
all over the yet crowded room. Carried by acclama- 
tion. It was done. Sheriff Pettingill then gave Fos- 
ter his hand and said, " Now if you will step into my 
carriage I will be very happy to take you back to your 
lodgings." The offer was cordially and gratefully 
accepted by our weary and suffering friend, and thus 
ended the day with its strange and wondrous disclo- 
sures and deeds. 

But perhaps narration should not close without a 
brief mention of two or three meetings held immedi- 
ately, to consider the right and propriety of so lib- 
eral construction of the rights of speech and worship, 
as were attempted by Mr. Foster and countenanced by 
Mr. Wood. Both being members -of the state anti- 
slavery executive committee, that committee united 
with them in a formal call for such expression. And 
a committee was appointed to extend a special invita- 
tion to the clergy of the town to attend and partici- 
pate in the deliberations. But the clergy did not 
come, though the people did, in number and quality, 
too, much to their surprise. Mr. Foster vindicated 
himself in the course he pursued, by the example of 
Jesus Christ and his apostles, who were both dragged 
out of the synagogues by the church and clergy of 
their time. He showed that Christ enjoined on his 



144 ACTS CONTINUED, 

disciples to enter those places, and assured them that 
they would be scourged in the synagogues and dragged 
out, and that there would come a time when whoso- 
ever should kill them, would think he did God service. 
He showed that the modern synagogue was even more 
intolerant and persecuting than the ancient Jewish. 
For there Christ and His apostles were even invited 
to speak, and never were disturbed for speaking, but 
only for what they spoke. But he said you drag me out 
of your christian houses of worship only for attempting 
in a respectful and christian manner, to be heard, not 
knowing what I would say. And you haul me before 
the magistrates and thrust me into prisons, and may 
yet kill me for only attempting to do what Christ and 
His apostles could and did do, unmolested, in all the 
places for worship of their time. It was only when 
they rebuked the hypocrisy and wickedness of the 
worshippers, that they were accused of disturbing the 
worship, and thrust out accordingly. Mr. Foster was 
just recovering from the severe injuries he had suffered 
at the hands of the South church, and perhaps never 
in his life spoke with more pathos and power. And 
the whole sympathy, if not sentiment, of his crowded 
audience was with him. The following resolution was 
on the table for discussion : 

Resolved, That the conduct of Stephen S. Foster 
and Amos Wood, in attempting to speak in behalf of 
our enslaved countrymen, in the South church on 
Sunday last, without leave of the minister, was a gross 
and flagrant outrage on the prerogatives of the clergy 
and the rights of the people, and should be most un- 
equivocally condemned by every friend of good order 
and lover of liberty. 

The editor of the Herald 'in his report, said : " Only 
one voice answered in favor of the resolution, and that 
was an abortive, faint remanded yea, taken back in its 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 145 

very birth and sounding ludicrously with the thun- 
dering no, which followed upon it. This must have 
been gratifying to our lame and suffering brother 
Foster, who was still undergoing great pain from the 
christian handling of the church. Though it would 
not have shaken his faith, his own firm faith, had the 
response or the responses of all men, been the other 
way." 

Most of the leading abolitionists, including Mr. 
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and others in Massachu- 
setts, doubted the wisdom of Mr. Foster's course in 
thus entering the Sunday congregations, where only 
the stated minister was expected to speak. But none 
who knew him intimately ever doubted his entire hon- 
esty, indeed deep, solemn conviction of religious duty, 
in what he did, and in all that he did. The clergy 
were not behind the most depraved politicians in their 
determination to prevent the people, both in and out- 
side the churches, from learning the truth on a problem 
which every abolitionist knew full well involved the 
national preservation or destruction, accordingly as it 
might be solved. The whole nation came to under- 
stand it rightly at last ; but not till its eyesight had 
been washed and clarified in blood and tears. 

Mr. Foster, having adopted and proved the great 
utility of his new method, persisted in it until it was 
demonstrated that no other had ever subserved so 
good a purpose in arousing the whole nation to its 
duty and danger. Nothing like or unlike it, before or 
afterward, so stirred the whole people, until John 
Brown, with his twenty heroes, marched on Harper's 
Ferry and challenged the supporters of slavery to 
mortal combat. 

One reason that Foster often gave for his extreme 
action, as well as utterance, was, that ends sometimes 



146 ACTS CONTINUED, 

justified any means, He would say, "should I see 
your house on fire, and yourselves and families in 
danger of instant death 'in the flames, must I go and 
gently knock and wait till you come and unlock the 
door before notifying you of your peril ? Or, suppose 
I saw a church full of worshipers, with the roof all 
ablaze, would they be likely to drag me out should I 
rush in, unbidden, and shout, fire, fire, at the top of 
my voice?" And then he would say, "your whole 
country is in extremest peril. Your whole country is 
on fire. Every one of you should tremble, like 
Thomas Jefferson, 'remembering' that God is just, and 
that His justice cannot sleep forever /' " But as we now 
know, he was not believed ; though his words could 
not have been more true, had they been in very deed 
inspired by flic Holy G/iost. 

Another argument he often urged with great per- 
tinency and force, based on christian scripture, too, 
and the practice of the Apostolic church : 

The great apostle, Paul, gave direction for conduct- 
ing worship ; and at this time neither Paul nor Jesus 
had a more devout disciple than Foster ; nor the Con- 
gregational church a more holy, conscientious and 
consistent member. The apostolic injunction simply 
was, that order be preserved, though every one, hav- 
ing psalm, doctrine, interpretation or revelation, should 
be heard, each in turn. And then, to close, is 
added, "For ye may all prophesy one by one ; that all 
may learn and all be comforted." So, too, the exam- 
ple and practice of Jesus Christ in the Jewish syna- 
gogues, he would cite, as already shown, with much 
point and power. "True," he would say, "the people 
sometimes dragged him out as you do me. But it was 
not because he spoke ; it was for what he said." It 
was always his claim, as with both Christ and Paul, 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 147 

that, "where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 
and liberty of speech preeminently. 

When the people came to his meetings he never 
went to theirs. If the ministry kept away, and, as they 
generally did in those days, endeavored to keep the 
people away, he went to them as frequently as possi- 
ble, at whatever cost. If imprisoned, as many times 
he was, he comforted himself that he not only " re- 
membered them that were in bonds as bound with 
them," but that he actually was bound with them, and 
for their sake ; and verily, he had in it great reward. 

Whoever attended his meetings always had the 
largest liberty of speech, no matter how widely they 
differed from him. He asked only two things of an 
opponent : first, that good temper and spirit be kept, 
and second, that both parties keep strictly to the ques- 
tion in hand. And sometimes he would hold his audi- 
ences till midnight. 

Probably he encountered more mob opposition and 
violence than any other agent ever in the anti-slavery 
lecturing field. But almost always he would in some 
way obtain control of his opponents. There were ex- 
ceptions. Once he had four meetings broken up in a 
single week. Though in Portland he suffered more 
by violent hands than in the South church at Concord, 
he was finally rescued and borne off in triumph by a 
band of noble and heroic women. Not, however, till 
he had suffered much bodily harm and the loss of his 
hat and other parts of his clothing. His traveling 
companion, Rev. John Murray Spear, was worse han- 
dled than he. He was carried to his home at the hos- 
pitable house of an anti-slavery family, and confined 
to his chamber for a number of weeks. There was 
suffering as well as heroism, in those days. 



148 ACTS CONTINUED, 

On the island of Nantucket, mob violence became 
such that a course of lectures Foster had com- 
menced was cut short, and he was advised to leave 
the place by his friends, which he did, though before 
he left they desired him to write a letter at his earliest 
convenience, explanatory of his course, and in further 
illustration and proof of some of his positions. His 
answer to that reasonable request was. The Brother- 
hood of Thieves: or, a True Picture of the American 
Church and Clergy ; in some respects the most remark- 
able pamphlet of seventy-two closely-printed pages 
that the anti-slavery, or any other enterprise of reform 
has ever produced. It was published in 1843. It 
defied contradiction, both as to doctrine and declara- 
tion. It passed through many editions, and went 
everywhere, east and west. And no matter who, or 
what power and influence abolished slavery, that work 
stands unrefuted and unrefutable ; and shall stand a 
monument to the moral and material heroism, ability, 
fidelity, and disinterestedness of its author, till time 
shall be no more. 

Distinguished abolitionists were often called men of 
one idea. Anti-slavery, in its immeasurable importance 
to all the interests of the country, material, mental, 
moral, and social, as well as religious, and political, 
was one idea far too great for ordinary minds, even 
without any other. But the sturdy symmetry and con- 
sistency of Mr. Foster's character were as wonderful 
as were his vigor and power in any one direction. 
Earliest and bravest among the temperance reformers, 
when even that cause was almost as odious as anti- 
slavery became afterward ; a radical advocate of peace 
from the standpoint of the Sermon on the Mount, 
" Resist not Evil," seconded by the apostolic injunc- 
tion, "Avenge not yourselves;" a champion in the 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 149 

woman suffrage enterprise from its inception ; an 
intelligent, earnest advocate of the rights of labor, 
and deeply interested in all the educational and 
moral, social and philanthropic associations for the 
advancement and improvement of the city and neigh- 
borhood where he lived, he left behind him a record 
and a memory to grow brighter as the years sweep on; 
and his virtues becoming more and more luminous, 
shall be the better appreciated by multitudes who 
learn to profit by them. 

The beauty and harmony of his home were unsur- 
passed. It was sacred to peace and love. Its unosten- 
tatious but elegant and generous hospitality was the 
admiration of all whoever enjoyed it, by day or night. 
At almost seventy-two, he passed away on the 8th 
of September, 1881, deeply lamented by many true 
and devoted friends, whose respect, admiration and 
affection he had won by a long life intensely devoted 
to the highest interests of man and womankind. 

But it is time for Mr. Foster and myself to return to 
the lecturing field. 

On a cold, cloudy afternoon in early winter, we left 
Concord for a short campaign, to commence in that 
part of Pembroke now known as Suncook. At that 
time it was a neighborhood of a dozen houses, mostly 
small, one store, a tavern of the class then known as 
" Meadow-hay taverns," and a brick school-house, 
elbowed a little to one side, and in which we were to 
hold our meeting. The road was rough and hard 
frozen, the day was cold, and my old open wagon 
unfurnished with buffalo robes. But we were young 
and tolerably vigorous, and cared little for such trifles, 
well warmed within with an earnest purpose, we could 
resist a good deal of wind and weather. We intended 
to reach an anti-slavery family on our way, in time for 



150 AC IS CONTINUED, 

tea and then go on with them to the meeting, a mile 
or two beyond. But when we arrived, tea was done 
and nothing was said about it, though a ride of some 
miles over a frozen, rough road, after a busy afternoon 
of preparation for the tour, seemed to argue strongly 
in favor of some refreshment, the prospective evening 
work emphasizing the necessity. So we fasted, and 
my patient pony, Tunbridge, communed meantime with 
the stone hitching-post at the gate. In due season, we 
started for the meeting, the family carriage leading 
the way. The people were gathering in goodly num- 
bers and, tying Tunbridge to a tree and covering her 
well in her warm blanket, we entered the school-house 
and were soon at our wonted business. Our meetings 
were always open to, and often lively and late with 
free discussion. So it proved on that evening ; and 
when we did close, it was after ten o'clock, and Foster 
and myself found ourselves left entirely alone in the 
house, and our horse and wagon outside, fastened to 
a tree. 

For special reasons it should be told here that when 
we entered the service of the State Society, we found 
it in debt to the editor and publishers of the Herald 
of Freedom, two thousand dollars ; nor did it own any 
printing-press, type, nor other office appointments. 
Our first business then seemed to be of a financial 
character, and Mr. Foster entered into it with his 
characteristic energy and fidelity. Most of the debt 
was due to the editor, contracted while patiently per- 
forming work of unsurpassed ability, fidelity and 
devotion to the cause of liberty and humanity. Fos- 
ter conceived the plan of funding the debt and divid- 
ing it into shares of five dollars each, in all amounting 
to four hundred shares. Any individual might take 
one share or more according to ability or inclination. 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 1 5 I 

and two persons could unite in taking one share. 
No payment was to be required till all the shares were 
secured, and to the lasting honor and credit of 
Mr. Rogers, it should be told that his own subscrip- 
tion to the shares amounted to almost half the sum 
due him. To dispose of these shares was, of course, 
an important part of the business of our meetings 
where there was prospect of any success ; and our 
own compensation by a general collection, was never 
named till all the shares possible, were secured. And 
my own salary that year was exactly three hundred and 
four dollars and forty-eight cents, and that not all col- 
lected in cash. And Foster certainly was not better 
paid. Whether at that Pembroke meeting we passed 
round the hat for ourselves I do not remember, but we 
did secure a few shares to the debt. At all events, 
when the meeting closed, we were left entirely alone. 
Our only recourse was the " Meadow-hay tavern," 
down in the village. No reproach to the then keeper 
of the house that such were sometimes so misnamed. 
I had met him before and knew him as a worthy man. 
We drove down, but found the house closed and the 
family all in bed. But the hostler, as was then universal 
custom, slept in a " bunk," as it was called, in the bar- 
room. Not quite Goldsmith's : 

* * * •' bed by night and chest of drawers by day," 

but still subserving some such purpose. With not 
much difficulty we waked the hostler and he appeared 
and let us in. We told him we were sorry to disturb 
him but we were strangers and wished accommodation 
for ourselves and horse over night. He said he could 
feed our horse but that he could do nothing for us, 
beyond giving us a bed. So I went with him to the 
stable, saw our Tunbridge well fed and cared for, and 
the wagon placed under cover, and at eleven o'clock, 



j^ 2 ACTS CONTINUED, 

we went supperless to our bed. That, we shared 
together, as the best our vice landlord could do for us 
at that hour of the night. 

Our next engagement was away across the country 
at Epsom, a long drive over rough and hilly roads, and 
we were to commence at one o'clock. Before sunrise I 
was at the stable with the hostler attending to my mare. 
When Foster appeared, we went into a store opposite, 
and invested four cents in baker's biscuits, and four 
more in raisins ; and sitting down by the stove, we 
made our supper of the previous night and our break- 
fast for that morning out of our purchase. And, whole 
truth to tell, Foster had no money and I had left most 
of my own small amount with my lonely little wife at 
home, so that we were only living as we could afford. 
The wife of an anti-slavery apostle then, enjoyed no 
enviable lot. 

And this may be the place to repeat of my own 
wife, that she supposed, and all her friends supposed, 
and I supposed and all my friends supposed that when 
she wedded, it was to a Congregational minister who 
had, even while a theological student remarkable 
experiences and successes in revivals of religion, and 
had besides four invitations from parishes in New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts to preach as a candidate 
for settlement. But while preaching a year as a hired 
supply, it became unmistakably certain that I could 
never do any good, honest, hearty anti-slavery work, 
such as the nation and the times demanded, and 
retain my standing in the Congregational pulpit. I 
found the neighboring ministers were prowling about 
among the church and people of my congregation 
whispering surmises that my anti-slavery zeal and my 
intimacy with the "Infidel Garrison," and the already 
suspected Rogers were shaking my own orthodoxy too. 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 153 

And one day a member of our church was sent to 
remind me that the brethren were fearing I was getting 
too much in the way of preaching works instead of 
faith as the means of salvation. He brought me 
several texts, such as : " By grace are ye saved through 
faith ;" and others of like import, a whole foolscap 
page of them, the last being : " Not of works lest any 
man should boast." I pleaded guilty as to the charge 
of dwelling more on works, and gave as reason that I 
thought we failed less in faith than in works. But 
he did his errand and went his way. And I went 
mine, though it soon led a long way from that and 
every other pulpit. But more about this hereafter. 
Possibly a good deal more. Here it need but be 
said that it was only after serious, solemn considera- 
tion that my resolution was formed. That however 
hardly made the disappointment less, to wife, or her 
friends, or mine, and, possibly, to myself least of all. 
But our breakfast over we returned to the tavern, 
on which the sun had not yet risen. I greeted the 
landlord and called for our bill. " Bill," he said good 
naturedly ; " bill, why, you don't owe anything, do 
you?" He knew we could have had no supper, and 
the tavern breakfast bell had not yet rung. So I 
explained to him that our last evening meeting held 
late, and that we had to drive to Epsom for another 
there to-day at one o'clock. So we had to catch a 
bite at the grocery across the street, and get on our 
way, but that we owed him for horse-keeping and our 
lodging. He poured a good natured glass of satire 
on our anti-slavery friends who would treat us so gen- 
erously, and said we might pay him half a dollar if we 
had a mind to, for our horse, but for us he should 
charge nothing. So we were soon off for Epsom. 
The morning was fine, but the roads were hilly and 



154 ACTS CONTINUED, 

rough, so that when we arrived it was time to com- 
mence, and a good audience had assembled, some 
from several miles away. The days were at the short- 
est, and we were to hold an evening meeting, so that 
there was not much time to be lost. It was quite sun- 
set when we closed. A Mr. Sanborn came and said 
we had better go home with him to supper, as prob- 
ably no other family would invite us, and there was no 
tavern in the town. He told us he and his family were 
anti-slavery, and kept to the old organization, and 
would be extremely glad to entertain us, though he 
lived two miles away, and up the mountain besides. 
And he also said, and much to my joy, that we need 
not take our horse out in the evening, as we could be 
brought back in the family wagon, " Catamount 
hill," as it was and is called, proved to us the " Delect- 
able mountains" of Bunyan's pilgrims. We had two 
interesting meetings, but New Organization had 
preceded us and captured the church and minister, so 
that those who aided us there, as elsewhere, with hos- 
pitality, with sympathy, or otherwise, were outside of 
the sectarian folds. The experiences of Monday and 
Tuesday were a fair average of the experiences of the 
week, for we reached Concord on Monday, having 
been absent eight days ; and we had held one or two 
meetings every day. A snow storm came in the time, 
and we were compelled to have our Tunbridge winter 
shod in consequence. We had had some success in 
disposing of our shares to the debt, but beyond that 
our financial operations would not to-day be pro- 
nounced a success. On reckoning up we had exactly 
thirty-seven cents more than when we set out, and 
that was in my hands. I did not smile if Foster did, 
when he said : " Well, Parker, I have no wife and 
you have ; so this time we will not divide." Nor prob- 



SKETCH OF STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 155 

ably did my wife smile heartily when I reached home 
and disclosed to her the situation. We made our sup- 
per of plain coarse bread and butter. But next morn- 
ing, to my wonderment, we had just the same for 
breakfast. In a joking way I complained of her fare, 
and said something about a new boarding house un- 
less she set a better table. The wit was a little too 
cool and deposited a dew drop or two in her eye and 
down her cheek, as she told me her money was out, 
and she did not like to break our resolution, never to 
be in debt. It would have been in order then for my 
eye to reflect back her's, but a rainbow in her sky 
seemed to me just then the needed return. It was 
true we determined in our little forty dollars a year 
rent never to be in debt ; but her health then was not 
as robust as mine. Such a breakfast was soon dis- 
patched, and nearly as soon I was on the street to 
break our good resolution, if there was strength in my 
credit to do it. Mr. Franklin Evans then (as I be- 
lieve ever since) kept an excellent general country 
store, and readily consented to trust me for whatever 
was needed. When I asked for my first and costliest 
article, which was fourteen pounds of good flour, he 
advised my taking a half barrel, as more economical. 
But I declined his generous proposal, and kept my bill 
within three dollars, though some nice butter and sugar 
were in my purchase. Before bed-time three dollars 
came from some unexpected source, with which the 
debt was paid as promised, and wife and I slept that 
night as before from our marriage, "owing no man 
anything, but to love one another." And it is only 
truth and justice to say that from that night, the 
handful of meal and cruse of oil never wholly failed 
our humble home. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES CONTINUED— LETTER OF CON- 
CORD WOMEN— CLERICAL USURPATION-MORE REVE- 
LATIONS OF NEW ORGANIZATION— RIOTOUS PROCEED- 
INGS AT DOVER— BY THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD OF 
FREEDOM. 

As we are now back in Concord, we will once more 
recur briefly to the South church. Readers doubtless 
have seen, if not deplored, some repetition in previous 
chapters — only necessary till they become acquainted 
with the persons and the principles mostly presented in 
these pages for their consideration. 

It is now proposed to present a new phase of anti- 
slavery action and effort, in which all could bear ac- 
tive part who chose. Concord South Congregational 
church had several excellent men and women, who 
had made themselves quite offensive to the minister 
and some prominent members by their fidelity to the 
anti-slavery cause. Some had even withdrawn, both 
from communion supper service and Sunday worship. 
Some w r ere women who were denied all speech or 
prayer, in private as well as public assemblies. They 
addressed a formal communication to the church, ex- 
pressive of their views and determinations, and then 
withdrew wholly from such fellowship. 

And in presenting that letter here it should be said 
that the same course became common, if not general, 
among genuine abolitionists all over the country, until 
the sect known as Come-outers grew to be numerous, 
and odious, too, to all who lacked courage or honesty 
to imitate that entirely scriptural course. Great 
numbers of these church withdrawal letters are before 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. I 57 

me in the bound volumes of anti-slavery papers, some 
of them of diamond points ; those of Mr. and Mrs. 
Rogers among them. New organized and third polit- 
ical party abolitionists displayed most fiery zeal at the 
ballot box once or twice a year ; would vote for no 
whig nor democrat to fill the meanest office. At the 
baptismal and sacramental altar whig and democrat 
shrunk into "gnats," and were swallowed in the com- 
munion wine, who, on Monday at the polls, swelled 
into larger " camels" than ever were exhibited at Bar- 
num's menagerie. Not so the women, nor some 
of the husbands of the women who addressed the sub- 
joined 

Letter to the South Congregational church in Concord, 
under the pastoral care of Daniel J. Noyes : * 
Dear Brethren and Sisters : — We, the under- 
signed, members of the South Congregational church 
in this town, feel bound in duty to God and man to ad- 
dress to you the following communication : 

Three millions of our fellow beings are living in 
our midst under the following circumstances : The 
family institution is abolished among them — husbands 
and wives, parents and children, are torn asunder to 
gratify the cupidity of their oppressors; they are pun- 
ished as felons for any attempt to learn to read the 
Holy Gospel ; parents are liable to be scourged and 
punished with death for teaching their children the 
way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. Eight 
thousand children are annually stolen, labeled as prop- 
erty and converted into merchandize. One sixth of 
the population of this nation are driven to incessant 
and unrequited toil from the dawn of life to its close. 
Three millions of God's immortal children, our breth- 
ren and sisters, are held and used among us as chat- 
tels personal, and bought and sold as brute beasts. 
Parents not unfrequently sell their own children. 
Thus a cloud of frightful, perpetual night is drawn 
over millions of souls in this land of Bibles and pro- 
fessed christian ministers and churches. 



158 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The American church and clergy constitute a main 
pillar of support to this system of unutterable crimes 
and woes. Thousands and tens of thousands are re- 
ceived as christians and christian ministers who are 
identified with this system as slave-holders and apolo- 
gists for slavery. These millions of imbruted slaves, 
our brethren and sisters, are fallen among thieves and 
robbers by your church door. The church has re- 
fused to pour in the oil and the wine. Both pastor 
and church have acted the part of priest and Levite to 
these suffering beings. By your silence as a church 
you are lending the most efficient support to this sys- 
tem. You fellowship man-stealers as christians and 
christian ministers. 

We owe it as a duty to Him who hath loved us and 
died for us, and to our suffering brethren and sisters 
in bonds, to refuse all participation in slavery. We 
feel that we do participate in that sin while we recog- 
nize any body of men and women as a christian church 
that refuses to bear an open, clear and solemn testi- 
mony against it. 

With such views and feelings we can no longer re- 
cognize you as a christian church while as a body you 
continue in your present position of silence to the 
wrongs of the slave. * * * 

* * * And we furthermore feel bound to protest 
against the spirit of a church which could prompt to 
the exclusion of two of its most worthy members, who, 
that they might keep a conscience void of offense to- 
wards God and towards man, have absented them- 
selves for a season from your meetings ; while others 
far behind them in spiritual attainments, and over 
whom you have solemnly promised to watch, are guilty 
of the same offense, and are suffered to remain with- 
out advice, warning or expostulation. 

May we all be directed by that wisdom which cometh 
from above, and at last be reunited in the church tri- 
umphant. Louisa W. Wood, 

Esther W. Currier, 
Mary Ann French, 
Sarah H. Pillsbury. 
Concord, N. H., January 16, 1841. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 159 

The last signer of this letter supposed, when she 
married, one year before, that she was the wife of a 
reputable and very promising young Congregational 
minister, and a large and highly conservative circle of 
family connections, one or two of them members 
of this same South church, and all of them of the 
best society in Concord, presumed the same. It can 
readily be supposed that at that time it required no 
little heroism in a young woman of two or three and 
twenty, thus to come out from all church, and family, 
and society relations, and continue her future destiny 
with an anti-slavery lecturer who had also made 
himself doubly odious by renouncing church, pulpit, 
and society and party affiliations and united himself 
with Garrison, Rogers and the school of "Come-outers," 
already more odious, if possible, than any other infidel- 
ity or heresy of those days. It may be added that 
most of the relatives of that then young wife, are now 
no more of earth, but such as do remain, have come, 
and not recently neither, to hold her in high and well 
deserved esteem. The other signers of the letter, who 
survive, are, and ever have been, among the truest and 
noblest women in the land. And all of them lived to 
prove to the world that in their whole anti-slavery 
course, they were guided by the highest, divinest dic- 
tates of conscience and humanity. 

The next movement of Mr. Foster and myself was 
into the counties of Rockingham and Strafford. 
Wherever we went our great difficulty was to reach 
the ear of the people. The clergy, especially the new 
organization clergy, seemed most incorrigible, most 
unscrupulous of all. They appeared, as already inti- 
mated, to have conspired together against us. The 
following extract from one annual report of the 
Vermont Domestic Missionary society, signed by 



160 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Rev. Samuel Delano, corresponding secretary, "in 
behalf of the directors," gives the sentiment of that 
numerous and powerful body, embracing the strength 
of the whole Congregational and Presbyterian church 
of that state : 

The ministers are the heads of the churches — the 
leaders in the sacramental host of God's elect. No 
measure can be carried without them, much less in 
opposition to them. And scarcely any proper meas- 
ure can fail to succeed, when the ministry put forth 
their power. In view of this fact, it is asked, with the 
utmost earnestness, ought they not, and in view of 
their obligations and of the glorious results sought, 
will they not come up to this work, and lead on the 
churches ? The churches can be reached in no other 
way. No man can approach a church when the pas- 
tor interposes. He cannot, and he may not if he can. 
To give Vermont to Christ — this is the peculiar work 
of the church of Vermont. It is the field given to 
these ministers and churches to cultivate and keep. 

Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, at the seventeenth annual 
meeting of the American Home Missionary Society, 
in a resolution, presented the necessity "of a stated 
evangelical ministry, as eminently the power of God 
for the conversion of the world." In his address, he 
spoke mainly in behalf of the " great west." He 
supported his resolution with characteristic force as 
against a transient ministry, pointing, perhaps, to the 
Methodist policy of rotation or change. Summing 
up, he said : 

A stated ministry unites society by strong bonds. A 
good pastor is a sort of central power in society. He 
holds the affections of those with whom he dwells, 
and becomes a patriarch among them * * * * 
Instances of the effects thus produced might easily 
be mentioned. I could tell you of a minister who 
having preached in a place fifty years became the 
patriarch of the village. And once when a lecturer 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. l6l 

came there whom he thought unsafe, he put on his 
gown and wig and cocked hat, and walked up one 
side of the street and told his people they had better 
not go, and then walked in the same way down the 
other side, and every soul staid at home ! All that is 
healthful in society, finds support in the stated 
ministry. 

We found clerical authority like that in full force in 
many a country town, so that much of our work was 
actual invasion. " The kingdom of heaven suffering 
violence and the violent taking it by force." In 
the town of Northwood, we found the minister, 
was in every important sense the "village patriarch" 
after the very heart of Dr. Beecher. He would not 
give our notice, and no public notice had been given 
of our meetings, which we intended should continue 
two evenings. And when Foster called on him and 
solicited the use of his vestry and his own attendance 
and cooperation, he quite spiritedly refused having 
anything to do with him. The vestry, however, was 
not too holy to be used for whig and democratic 
caucus and convention, not always conducted in very 
orderly or decent manner. A mile away from the 
church we had the use of a school-house two evenings, 
as at first intended. We spent the cold day in going 
from house to house, endeavoring to waken an interest 
in our movement. At the first meeting but few came, 
and they men and boys only. One glimmering tallow- 
dip and a small glass lantern made almost a vain 
attempt to show us to each other. After prayer, with 
which we then opened our meetings, we introduced a 
resolution, declaring all not actively engaged in the 
anti-slavery enterprise, to be by position if not in 
spirit, slaveholders. Such a charge brought several 
of the staunchest advocates of slavery and ablest men 
of the town to their feet. A lawyer and an old 



162 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

academy preceptor defended slavery from the Bible. 
And both pleaded earnestly the cause of the church 
and pulpit against our charges as deduced from the 
resolution presented. The ex-preceptor said he had 
lived at the South among slaveholders and that our 
" Southern brethren" emphasizing the words, were 
"as high minded, hospitable and pious a people as 
could be found on this globe." And moreover, that 
no happier class of persons could be found anywhere 
than the slaves. Indeed, he earnestly declared their 
very labor was a source of happiness, as he knew from 
his own experience, never having been so happy in his 
life as when at work on his father's farm. 

Toward the close, the debate ran high, and a member 
of the Congregational church, not relishing a discus- 
sion when the truth was so manifestly against him and 
his side, tried hard to adjourn us, complacently assur- 
ing Foster and myself that " our further labors in 
the town could be dispensed with." But hoping to 
get access to a better class of people, we succeeded in 
an adjournment to next evening, much to our surprise 
as well as gratification. 

The next evening brought a full house, but the 
enemy overpowered us, and organized and officered 
to suit themselves. Some would have gladly heard us 
had they been permitted. We did get an opportunity 
in the course of the evening to present one more res- 
olution, which we had prepared before hand. It was 
our custom when we saw that a mob was inevitable, to 
try to turn it to good account, by making what we did 
say, as effective and as likely to be remembered as pos- 
sible. So my second resolution read in substance that 
no person should be regarded as a christian or chris- 
tian minister, who was not an earnest, active, out- 
spoken abolitionist. The uproar was renewed at once 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 163 

with augmented violence, the moment the resolu- 
tion was heard. After a time Foster obtained the 
floor for a few moments, and reasoned of righteous- 
ness, temperance and judgment already come, as few 
young men of that or any day since ever did. Even 
our stoutest opponents stood aghast, if, like the Roman 
Felix, they did not tremble. But our meetings showed 
no immediate good results. One old gentleman 
kindly entertained us, and with his family sympathized 
deeply with us in our seeming disappointment. But 
we devoutly thanked him and the family, and assured 
them on parting that we were already accustomed to 
such repulsions, and were prepared for whatever 
awaited us. 

Deerfield, the next day, proved equally inhospitable 
to the truths we carried there. The Calvinistic Bap- 
tist minister was personally very friendly to us, and 
an abolitionist, too, but had not heard of our coming, 
and no notice had been given of our intended meet- 
ings ; nor was it convenient for us then to attempt 
any meetings. We called on the Free Will Baptist 
minister, and found him a hard-headed, harder-hearted 
democrat, of the most pronounced pro-slavery type. 
Doubtless he has long since passed away ; but to his 
dying day, I dare affirm he remembered the remon- 
strances and rebukes he, on that occasion, received 
from the inspired voice of Stephen Foster. 

At Nottingham I was invited by the Congregational 
minister, Mr. Le Bosquet, to preach for him on Sun- 
day, during the day. I had not then, in form, laid 
down my ministerial prerogative, and accepted when 
convenient every such proposal. Mr. Le Bosquet was 
a new organization abolitionist, and so could not 
wholly agree with me then, though friendly towards 
me, and even magnanimous. But he finally lapsed 



164 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

entirely into the political vortex, and never, so far as 
I knew, abandoned the Congregational pulpit or de- 
nomination, with all its incorrigible pro-slavery char- 
acter. 

Our reception at Lee, home of the Quaker family 
of the Cartlands, was not unlike that at Northwood in 
so far as the character of audiences was considered, 
though they were numerically larger and more voci- 
ferous. Northwood had no Cartland family, as had 
Lee, and that made a difference in our favor, morally' 
of thousands, though our resolutions were voted down 
of course, by stamping majorities. A venerable Bap- 
list minister attended on Sunday evening ; even post- 
poned his own regular meeting for it. He not only 
opened our exercises with prayer, but bore friendly 
testimony to our general course. So on the whole our 
few friends in Lee were much pleased with our visit 
and labors there. 

Exeter, to which we went next, was one of the old, 
aristocratic, wealthy, conservative towns, and a county 
seat besides, so that really we had little to hope at its 
hand or heart. We had not underestimated the moral 
and spiritual quality of the people. In the larger, 
most popular, denominations clerical authority was 
more malignant, more imperious than we had any- 
where found it before. The Christian minister was ill, 
and we did not call on him, but were assured that he 
was decidedly friendly to us and our cause. The Meth- 
odist clergyman showed himself indeed on our side, 
for he not only permitted us to occupy his meeting- 
house, but suspended some special protracted relig- 
ious services then holding, that we might have not 
only his house, but congregation as well. And we 
found two or three colored families in the town 
who manifested deep and intelligent interest in our 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 165 

work, so that on the whole, we found a goodly 
number of interested sympathizers in our mission, 
if not among the opulent and popular, certainly 
of that not less worthy, nor by any means less import- 
ant class, who, eighteen hundred years before, heard 
"gladly " a far greater teacher and lecturer. 

One morning call on a Congregational minister of 
the place was worthy of remembrance and recall, and 
that will be all that need be said of our visit to Exe- 
ter. We certainly entered his study in a becoming 
manner and proper and kindly spirit. We gave our 
names and the object of our coming in tone and tem- 
per of which none could complain. But in a bluster- 
ing, threatening mood and language absolutely 
abusive, he positively forbade our speaking on our 
subject in his presence. Mr. Foster told him that we 
sometimes had to speak to men whether they would 
hear or forbear. He snatched up his pen with the ut- 
most violence and commanded us to leave him to his 
work. His large size and great agitation, his lip 
actually quivering with rage, and the haughty manner 
in which he stormed at us, strongly reminded us of 
the caution of Him who spake as never man spake : 
" Beware of Men !" As we turned to go we told him 
we must express our disapprobation of his course, and 
in obedience to divine command, shake off the dust of 
our feet as our testimony against him. His treatment 
of us compelled the belief of many things told us 
against him as to his manner of life. At that very 
time men were going home drunk and abusing their 
families ; one man actually murdered his wife in his 
drunken rage, and yet that same minister was baptiz- 
ing the rum trade and trader, and receiving them to 
full church communion and fellowship. It need not 
be told that several of his church members had alreadv 



I 66 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

withdrawn from his ministrations. And if other facts 
concerning him, which were given us from eye and 
ear witnesses, should be here produced, they would 
almost exceed belief. But his demeanor towards us 
prepared us to accept whatever of immorality might 
be spoken against him. Afterwards we said and wrote 
truly that we had pleaded the cause of the slave in 
bar-rooms and in grog-shops, in the field, the forge, 
the factory and the highways, if not in the hedges, 
but it was for a New England minister, pastor of one 
of the largest Congregational churches in his state, to 
positively and peremptorily forbid us to open our 
mouths for the dumb in his reverend presence. 

Should it be objected that he was only one, and 
represented only himself, it could be answered that he 
was one of a powerful denomination and influential, 
too far above the average membership in every coun- 
cil ; and a denomination, too, that made the heresy of . 
rejecting infant baptism at that day an offense of such 
importance as to refuse ordination for the ministry at 
home and the missionary abroad. 

Readers by this time understand that every individual 
clergyman or separate church described in these 
records is only as representative of large numbers, 
and by no means as exceptions to general rules. One 
incident, however, is worthy of mention for its origin- 
ality. Nor do I remember more than one or two like 
it in all my lecturing mission of almost forty years, 
and it was in the afternoon of the day we left Exeter. 

We drove into Stratham, where we had sent on an 
appointment for afternoon and evening. Inquiring 
the way as we rode along, we learned that our meeting 
would be at two o'clock, in a meeting-house, to which 
we were easily directed, and which we soon reached. 
It was a small, pretty little steepled building, situated 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 167 

almost alone, not a house very near it, and only a few 
in sight of it. Driving our horse under a friendly shed 
in the rear, we entered and found everything comfort- 
able and desirable as possible, but not a human soul 
nor body present beside ourselves, The hour had ar- 
rived, and so had the speakers, but where was the 
audience ? We sat an hour or more, till the sun was 
getting low, and then drove on to a little village pros- 
pecting ; but soon found to no purpose. It was made 
very certain that the house would not be lighted nor 
warmed for evening, so we drove down to Greenland, 
adjoining, which we found, spite of its name, a warmer 
clime. 

But Foster could not forget Stratham. We had 
met mob after mob ; minister after minister, sometimes 
the direct instigator of the mob ; and almost always 
we had achieved some sort of honorable success ; if 
not triumph. True, it was " hard to kick against 
pricks ;" but to kick against nothing, could not be 
borne. However, it was early spring before he found 
it convenient to visit Stratham again. Then he went 
alone. He had his meeting appointed in a school 
house, on a bright April moonlight evening. When he 
entered the house, a dozen or two had gathered. He 
waited a reasonable time, hoping to see more. But no 
more came. So he commenced his lecture. I do not 
know what he said or did not say. Probably it would 
have made no difference. For just as he grew a little 
animated and earnest in gesture as well as utterance, 
his audience rose, probably at a preconcerted signal, 
and deliberately and respectfully walked out of the 
house, leaving him entirely alone ! So there he stood, 
a sentence half uttered, a gesture struck down in its 
formation. Perhaps never before nor afterwards, was 
he more completely subdued. 



l68 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

At North Hampton, we had a little clerical exper- 
ience not unworthy of mention. No meeting had 
been appointed so we assumed all responsibility, not 
•• mobbing," as Mr. Emerson charged, but taking 
possession of the town. We fortunately found one 
good man who went with us to call on the minister to 
ask for his vestry and his cooperation for an anti- 
slavery meeting. The minister was a mile away visit- 
ing a winter school. Foster sat in the sleigh while our 
friend with me knocked at the school-house door. The 
minister appeared in the entry as we desired, but no 
sooner were my name and business announced than 
the clerical wrath kindled. He did not, like his stalwart 
Exeter brother, forbid my speaking in his presence, but 
in similar spirit declared he would hold no communi- 
cation. No, said he, " I have heard of you and 
Stephen Foster, and I want nothing to do with you. 
You abuse the ministers in your Herald of Freedom ; 
men that I respect. I know what it contains. I read it." 

So do most of the ministers, might have been 
responded to him, but I did not interrupt him. When 
I did speak I said, you treat us just as do most of the 
orthodox ministers ; and you need not wonder that we 
expose them in the name of humanity and for the 
sake of the down-trodden slave. " O, I see," he said, 
"what you are after. You want to draw me into argu- 
ment and then hold me up in your Herald, as you 
have so many other ministers ; but I shall not put 
myself in your power." I then made some little 
remark, which stirred his indignation, and he broke 
forth again and charged, me and my companion very 
vehemently with attacking holy institutions, rending 
churches, abusing ministers, disturbing the public 
peace and seeking to undermine all the institutions of 
society. He forgot what he said a moment before 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 69 

about putting himself in my power and stormed along 
till all he said would have made a very much longer 
account than is here given. I did send what made 
nearly two columns in the Herald, and mailed copies 
of it to most of the leading men of the town, there 
being then no subscribers, or not more than one 
there. 

It is highly probable that Mr. Foster and myself in the 
lecture field, with Mr. Rogers at the helm of the Herald 
of Freedom, were justly chargeable with not a little dis- 
turbance of the public peace. I wrote a sermon at 
the time from the text, "Think not that I am come to 
send peace on earth : I came not to send peace but a 
sword." It was strictly orthodox in doctrine, so I 
sometimes preached it in orthodox pulpits ; did so in 
Concord South church, which was the beginning of 
its anti-slavery sorrows, for Foster did not go there 
till more than a year afterwards. Rogers was present, 
and here are a few things he said of it in the next 
Herald. I had not then wholly abandoned preaching, 
nor been disowned by the Suffolk association of minis- 
ters from whom I received regular license in Boston 
to preach the Congregational gospel. But I was soon 
called to account after my presumption in preaching 
such a sermon to such a body as Foster proved the 
South church to be in its coming judgment day, some 
year or two afterwards. 

After a few words on ministerial influence and what 
constitutes it, and who it was who " made himself of 
no reputation," and had "no weight of influence," 
Rogers proceeded to say : 

Parker Pillsbury is doubtless one of the three 
intended by the Christian Panoply. He has no influ- 
ence. But the Panoply and kindred ministers abound 
with it. Those who heard brother Pillsbury on Sunday 



170 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

evening before last, may understand what it is that 
gives "influence and weight" to a New Hampshire 
minister. The full auditory that heard him that even- 
ing, with the attention of life and death, and the 
hushed stillness of the churchyard can tell how 
necessary "influence and w y eight " are to constitute a 
preacher of the gospel. 

The text was the declaration of Christ, that he came 
not to send peace, but a sword, on the earth. Then he 
spoke of the human character ; the agitating, disturb- 
ing influence of truth on that character — he glanced 
at the turmoil and confusion into which truth had ever 
wrought it, and the bitter hostility the church and 
ministry had manifested towards the spirit of reforma- 
tion, from the days of Him who came to bear witness 
unto the truth down through the times of Luther to 
our own. He spoke of the necessity, safety and whole- 
someness of moral agitation in society and in the church, 
and the deadly danger of moral stagnation. He illus- 
trated the one by the tossed ocean, ever pure and whole- 
some from its ceaseless inequietude, and the other by 
the stagnant, lifeless pool, become putrid by its own 
quiescence,breeding only croaking frogs and noisesome, 
hurtful reptiles. He declared the duty of the watch- 
man on the walls of Zion was to be ever in the van of 
moral agitation. When the tempest was up he should 
be prompt to mount the foremost billow and direct the 
storm. And in time of dead calm, the watchman of 
all men, should wake the moral hurricane. 

We can merely touch on this sermon. The breath- 
less auditory best attested its power and its palpable 
truth. But the Christian Panoply says brother Pills- 
bury has no weight of influence. Of the manner of 
the speaker, we can only say he seemed to us to be 
mightily in earnest j to believe solemnly what he w 7 as 
preaching and not at all like one reciting a task. 

This testimony from Mr. Rogers is only produced 
here to show what really was the disturbing element 
among the clergy, and gave such point and significance 
to the anti-slavery movement, especially to the labors 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 7 I 

of the field lecturers ; and at that time in New Hamp- 
shire and Massachusetts much more than anywhere 
else. The cause was now eleven years old, but never 
before had the sin of slavery been so directly laid at 
the door of the church. But the time had come when 
''judgment must begin at the house of God." Even 
Judge Birney's "American Churches the Bulwarks of 
American Slavery " had by no means produced the 
desired effect. For some reason, it was first published 
in England, and seems not to have had much circula- 
tion in the United States till its second edition revised 
by the author, in 1842, and published in Garrison's 
native town, Newburyport, Massachusetts. 

While slavery was only an evil, the church and even 
the clergy could be, and many of them were opposed 
to it. Professor Stuart, of Andover Theological Sem- 
inary, denied even that doctrine, and wrote and pub- 
lished a tract entitled, '■'■Slavery not a malum in se," 
which had many readers and believers, and produced 
a marked effect, particularly among the ministry. But 
Garrison was already in the field, and slavery was 
branded as a sin against God and a crime against man, 
always and everywhere ; and the only remedy for it 
was immediate and unconditional emancipation of 
every slave. This demand had many supporters in 
the church and pulpit, till the application was made 
directly and forcibly to them, with the more startling 
declaration that no slave-holder could be a christian. 
And when at last the uncompromising abolitionists 
proclaimed their determination to have "no union nor 
fellowship with slaveholders, in state nor church," and 
pronouncing the northern apologist and abettor, no 
less wicked than the slave-holder, because sinning 
against more light, and with less motive and tempta- 
tion, then the alarm pealed out so as to reach the 



jy 2 Ai rS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

deafest ear, the deadest church. Almost every Con- 
gregational and Presbyterian minister in the north 
heard it and stood aghast ! Even President Lord, of 
Dartmouth college, fled in dismay; though he, like 
Rev. Mr. Curtis had preached and written plainly 
against slavery as sin, not the "malum in se," of pro- 
fessor Stuart. Idie most anti-slavery ministers made 
haste to find, or base a remedy in new organization. 
So especially was it here in New Hampshire, as has 
been sufficiently shown. Only three Congregational 
ministers, I think, in the state remained to the old 
society, and one of them was unordained, and another, 
Rev. Benjamin Sargent, was Presbyterian, settled in 
that part of Chester now known as Auburn. He and 
Thomas P. Beach, who has already appeared in these 
pages, and will again, next year (1842) remained true 
to their convictions, though at cost of much personal 
bitterness and even cruel persecution from their clerical 
brethren and other opponents of the anti-slavery cause. 
The third was he of "no weight of influence" in 
Christian Panoply esteem ; and more especially after 
he had preached his sermon on moral and religious 
agitation, from the text, "I am not come to send 
peace, but a sword." 

I pass over several meetings of much interest, 
attended by Mr. Foster and myself, one at Great Falls, 
which continued two or three days and closed on Sun- 
day afternoon in time for us to ride to Dover for a 
meeting there in the evening. 

Mr. Rogers had come down in the last of the week 
and was with us a part of the time at Great Falls. But 
the Dover meeting on Sunday evening proved of 
greater interest and more importance than had been 
anticipated. And so marked were some of its pecul- 
iarities and so prominent was the part borne in it by 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 173 

Mr. Rogers, that readers will surely be grateful to me 
for permitting them to read his description of it, in his 
next week's Herald. The heading to his editorial 
read thus : 

VIOLENT BREAKING UP OF A MEETING AT DOVER — ■ 
REV. MR. YOUNG, FRANCIS COGSWELL, ESQ., AND 
COL. ANDREW PIERCE. 

We mention the names cf these three individuals 
here in the same connection with the words above in 
which they appeared with the disturbance and breaking 
up of an anti-slavery meeting in the place last Sunday 
night. We give the public the facts. 

Sunday evening, accompanied by our state agents 
Pillsbury and Foster, on our way home from the 
Somersworth convention, we met a very large and most 
respectable assemblage of the people of Dover in the 
Orthodox Congregational meeting-house. It was, so 
far as we could judge, as intelligent and enlightened 
an auditory as that large town could furnish. The exer- 
cises began by reading a hymn by Rev. Mr. Young, 
minister of that house, singing by the choir, prayer by 
Rev. Mr. Haydon, Baptist clergyman, then a hymn 
read by Mr. Young and singing again ; when, after 
explaining to the audience the mistaken notice that 
had been given which might have led to an expecta- 
tion of a prepared address from us, we offered for the 
consideration of the meeting, a resolution of the fol- 
lowing purport : 

That at this stage of the anti-slavery enterprise, no 
intelligent person, not openly and faithfully engaged 
in it, ought to be recognized as a christian, or as 
possessed of common humanity. After reading the 
resolution through distinctly twice to the meeting, we 
proceeded to enforce it in the plainest, most faithful 
manner we were able to do without any preparation 
except the brief prayer we offered to God in secret 
that he would enable us to say something to reach the 
heart and conscience of the influential and high minded 
auditory before us. Owing to severe exhaustion and 
indisposition, we had intended to say but few words 
at the meeting, and to leave the main service in the 



174 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

hands of our brethren, the agents ; one of whom took 
the resolution to the meeting with that understanding. 
But just before the close of the second singing he 
handed it to us with the wish expressed that we should 
lead in the discussion, to which we assented, trusting 
in God to give us somewhat to say on so embarrassing 
an occasion. We proceeded to remind our audience 
of the fact of our country's enslavement of a sixth 
portion of the people, of the character and objects 
of the anti-slavery enterprise, of its advancement 
from the beginning and its present stage, and of the 
unchristian and inhuman position of all in the country 
who refused to enlist openly and faithfully in it. We 
talked some forty minutes as near as we could judge, 
and as plainly and faithfully as we were able. The 
audience gave us the stillest and most active attention. 
Considering the pointed character of the remarks we 
were obliged to make and the auditory we were 
addressing, proud in talent, influence, wealth and 
reputation and all that finds human self-respect, we 
were deeply grateful and somewhat surprised that 
they gave us such patient and forbearing audience. 
May God bless it to the anti-slavery repentance of 
them all. 

We were followed by our brother Foster in a strain 
of the pertinent, eloquent and solemn remark which 
distinguishes him as an anti-slavery speaker. In the 
course of his exposition of the character of the com- 
munity in relation to slavery, he remarked on the sup- 
port given the slave system by their honoring it in the 
persons of distinguished slave-holders for whom they 
had recently voted for high offices in the gift of the 
people, and by their fellowshiping slave-holders and 
their apologists as christians and ministers of the 
gospel. The auditory awarded him throughout the 
most pointed attention. 

When Foster closed, we addressed them to show 
that their position while out of the anti-slavery enter- 
prise, was the one, and the very one, and the only one 
which could aid the south in their slave-holding, and 
which the south desired them, or would consent that 
they should take. We spoke of their estimation of the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 75 

free colored man, and of the estimation in which he 
was held abroad — by subjects of monarchy, by the first 
talent and character in Great Britain — and of the 
reception we met with there as abolitionists on our 
recent visit abroad, compared with the estimation we 
were held in here at home. The same attention was 
vouchsafed us while we spoke, as before. 

At our closing, brother Foster arose and requested 
the enlightened audience, if any among them denied 
or doubted the soundness of our positions or the truth 
of our facts, or of the resolution before us, they would 
give the meeting the benefit of their opinions, and set 
us right. No one rose nor moved from his seat. A 
considerable time elapsed in perfect silence. Brother 
Pillsbury privately asked us if it were advisable to 
offer anything farther. We advised him to consult his 
feelings and follow his duty. 

He arose, and after alluding to the lateness of the 
time and the probability of his wearying the audience, 
went on to speak of the effect produced by him on the 
last fourth of July upon an auditory in that house by 
an anti-slavery address, when nearly all the people, 
ministers and all left him at the sound of martial music 
which struck their ear as it was heralding in the 
streets a liberty procession in honor of the declaration 
of man's inalienable birthright to freedom. He then 
referred to the resolution, and was proceeding to 
illustrate and enforce with striking power the implied 
charge of the unchristian and inhuman character of 
the pro-slavery community, by its fellowshiping and 
honoring slave-holding in the professor and in the 
minister of the gospel, when he gave the name of the 
Reverend Edwin Holt, of Portsmouth, as a highly 
honored and ardently fellowshiped instance of the 
slave-holding minister who had, he averred — bought a 
woman, held her as a slave and sold her again and 
deeded her away body and soul to the slave purchaser, 
and had never repented of it nor confessed it, and 
notwithstanding was held in high estimation by the 
brotherhood of the ministry. He spoke of the impos- 
sibility of putting down slavery while slave-holding 
was so esteemed — declared Mr. Holt's offence worse 



1 76 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

than killing the body — that slavery was rightly esti- 
mated by Patrick Henry, when he exclaimed, "give me 
liberty or give me death !" He was proceeding to 
compare Mr. Holt as a murderer with Ferguson, the 
Exeter murderer, and to give his offence the preemi- 
nence, when the Rev. Mr. Young, rudely and with 
great excitement and violence of manner, broke in 
upon him: "Mr. Pillsbury, Mr. Pillsbury, you must 
stop! I must protest solemnly against such slanderous 
accusations being thrown out in this house. I cannot 
consent to have my brethren in the ministry thus 
slandered in my presence when they have not been 
impeached by their brethren," and more in like strain 
and temper. 

Brother Pillsbury calmly asked him : But is not 
what I say true ? If I have uttered anything slander- 
ous before this audience I wish to be convinced of it 
that I may make becoming acknowledgements. Mr. 
Young replied, this is not the place to settle that — his 
brethren in the ministry were the tribunal to settle 
that, and he should not discuss it. Brother Pillsbury 
replied that any one had a right to state the truth, and 
particularly such truth as that. Whereupon Francis 
Cogswell, esq., rose and in vehement voice and man- 
ner said, that as a member of that church, he would 
not sit there and see that sacred place desecrated by 
the slanders that had been thrown out by the speakers 
that evening, and that the meeting ought to break up, 
etc., whereupon a voice of similar earnestness came 
down upon us from the gallery in the same strain, 
accusing the speakers of slander, and of profaning 
that holy place, (pointing to the foot of the pulpit 
where we were standing) with delivering political 
addresses on that holy day — and when he had spoken 
as long as he wished, proposed that the meeting now 
close. The speaker, we were sorry to see, was Colonel 
Andrew Pierce. We immediately demanded of him 
to state before that audience, a single slanderous word 
we had uttered that evening ; stated that we submitted 
ourselves to the auditory, and if we had said a sinyie 
untrue thing, or anything not demanded of us as an 
advocate of the slave in their presence, we would 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. I 77 

retract it and make them acknowledgement to their 
entire content. Col. Pierce then confined his accusa- 
tion to the other speakers, whom he said he did not 
know ; and on our asking what they had either of them 
said that was slanderous, he replied that they had said 
that three-fourths of the professors of the religion in 
the country were on the road to hell — alluding to 
brother Pillsbury's remark, that if the resolution were 
true, three-fourths of the professed Christianity of the 
country were in the broad road to death, and that the 
church and ministry of the country were the strong- 
holds of slavery. \ nere had been no argument used, 
he said, by the speakers, and he declared there was no 
one in the house who was not opposed to slavery. We 
replied by asking him if it was not a truth that the 
church and the ministry were the stronghold of 
slavery ? when Mr. Cogswell again furiously interfered 
and protested against further discussion and hoped 
the meeting would break up and go home ; whereupon 
we were greeted with a tumultuous rising all at once, 
a smart hissing from the vicinity of Messrs. Pierce 
and Cogswell, and a violent slamming of seats and 
going out of the house ; all of which struck us as 
savoring more of desecration of the house than any 
"words of truth and soberness" that had been uttered 
by the speakers. One rose out of the auditory about 
the middle stage of the disturbance and demanded to 
know of those who accused the speakers of slandering 
Mr. Holt, whether the accusations against him were 
true — he wished for information to know if it were 
denied by any man. It was the first time he had 
heard of it, and he wished seriously to be informed if 
Mr. Holt had done what was charged, and what was 
pronounced slanderous. The questioner was John 
Parkman, Unitarian minister, whose position on the 
occasion we really respect too much to attach to his 
name the unwarrantable title of Reverend. His 
questions for the moment hushed the tumultuous 
tempest, but no one answered him. We had been 
accused three times by three different speakers of 
slander in relation to Mr. Holt, and when a denial of 
the slanderous charge was called for, no man was pre- 



178 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

pared to deny it or offer the least word in support of 
the false and wicked accusation made against us. 
Our meeting had been rudely and violently broken up, 
and the auditory thrown into a spasm of mobocratic 
excitement by Messrs. Young, Cogswell and Pierce 
and the speakers falsely accused of slander, and when 
called on even to deny the truth of what was charged 
as the slander, neither of them had the hardihood to 
deny its truth. Indeed Rev. Mr. Young shortly after 
in private conversation at the pulpit foot, admitted the 
truth of the charge, and said that Mr. Holt knew his 
sentiments in relation to slavery; that he had pro- 
claimed them before the people there, and that he 
himself felt that he could not again exchange pulpits 
with Mr. Holt. Why then, we asked, did you accuse 
our brethren of slander, when you knew the charge 
was true? It was not the charge, he said, but the 
manner, and time, and place ! He said Mr. Holt had 
not been impeached by his brethern. That was the 
very thing complained of, we responded ; it was that 
our brother Pillsbury was complaining of, when you 
interrupted him ; he was charging that very fact on 
the ministerial brethren, that they were fellowshiping 
a slave-holder as a minister of the gospel, and that 
slave-holding in their estimation, was no ground of 
impeachment. It was an unhappy state of things he 
admitted, but here was not the place to discuss it. 
There was coming up at this moment, a part of the 
audience who had retired. 

About the time the hissing commenced, Mr. Young 
had quitted his seat in the pew and taken his place on 
the platform with us and requested the people not to 
hiss. In justice to Mr. Cogswell we add that we 
understood by someone that he endeavored to check 
the hissing which took place while he was speaking 
and very naturally accompanied the furious tone in 
which he spoke. 

As the meeting was breaking up, brother Foster 
proposed that the singers retain their places till the 
noise subsided, that we might close our meeting with 
singing. The choir were prevented from this, had 
they been disposed to it, by an immediate extinguish- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERTi APOSTLES. 1 79 

ment of the lights, which took place tit the call of some 
one in behalf of the disturbance. " Put out the lights," 
was the cry in real 1S55 style, and we supposed it was 
preparatory to a personal onset. After the singing 
was prevented, and the lights out in the gallery, and 
silence restored, brother Foster called on Rev. 
Mr. Young to close the meeting with prayer. He 
declined, and brother Mack of the Morning Star, was 
called on and immediately complied. And his prayer 
was most appropriate to the occasion. We told 
Mr. Young that the whole violence and outrage were 
chargeable to him ; and he promptly admitted it. 
The lights were quickly extinguished and we were 
left at the foot of the pulpit stairs to grope our way 
out in utter darkness as best we could. But we left 
the house unmolested. * * * The 

people of Dover had their option to admit us to the 
meeting house or not — they acted their pleasure as to 
coming to hear us ; they had opportunity any of them 
to reply to anything we had said ; they were so 
apprised ; they were invited to ; they were urged to. 
They declined, and they knew they could be heard 
after brother Pillsbury should close. Were they not 
bound then to suffer the meeting to proceed and to 
close in quiet? Had Mr. Young, Mr. Cogswell, or 
Mr. Pierce, either of them a right to excite the meet- 
ing as he did, as they all did, and hazard the disgraceful 
and infamous results of a mob, after they had declined 
an invitation to say regularly and properly all they 
wished to say ? Is that their Christianity ? Is that their 
respect for the liberty of speech ? 

Such was the account of the Dover meeting-house 
mob given by the editor of the Herald of Freedom in 
the same week of its occurrence. If nothing was ex- 
tenuated, surely nought was set down in malice. But 
it was an act of peculiar aggravation, when the cir- 
cumstances are put in the record of it. 1 )over had had 
for several years one of the ablest and best Congre- 
gational ministers in the state, and certainly one of 
the most active in the anti-slavery cause, Rev. David 



rSo ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Root. Nor was his church as a body, far behind him. 
Nor was he by any means among the first, nor most 
active in the clerical conspiracy which led or drove to 
the division and new organization. Had northern 
clerical cooperation and church participation in all the 
crimes, cruelties and damning guilt of slavery never 
been arraigned, Dover had never had a mob in de- 
fence of such partnership in the sin. Had Mr. Root 
remained the minister of that church, it is hardly 
probable that scenes so disgraceful would have been 
witnessed. But Mr. Root had left Dover and New 
Hampshire, and the Rev. Mr. Young was in his stead 
straight from the sombre shades of Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary. It was a large, rich church and 
society that had settled and ordained him, and they 
worshipped in one of the largest and finest meeting 
houses then in the state. Some of us who were with 
Mr. Young at Andover rather wondered at their selec- 
tion to succeed such a man as David Root. But so it 
was, though his stay in Dover was short, and he early 
abandoned the ministry altogether. 

The mob of that dark December night was precipi- 
tated by the arraignment of Rev. Edwin Holt, of 
Portsmouth, as a slaveholder. And yet Mr. Young 
knew the charge was true. He admitted it to Mr. 
Rogers at the very steps of the altar, before the 
tumult had wholly ceased. His church must have 
known it was true. And Mr. Holt knew that Mr. 
Young knew it was true, because Mr. Young told us 
that Mr. Holt knew what his opinion of the business 
was, and he gave us to understand, doubtless intended 
that we should understand, that he had dealt very 
faithfully with him, as an offending brother. Why, 
then, did he cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war 
on our meeting for free and friendly discussion ? A 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. l8l 

meeting, as were all the meetings we ever held, free 
alike to our foes and friends. A meeting in which 
Mr. Young or Mr. Cogswell, or Mr. Pierce, could have 
had half of every hour, and more, had he desired, to 
contradict or disprove any statement of ours, about 
Mr. Holt, or anybody, or anything else. But the 
truth was, there was nothing to contradict. We knew 
whereof we affirmed. That was no new scene to us. 
On that very night, Foster had on a coat, (a dress coat 
of the style of that time), one skirt of which was torn 
square off in a violent mob at Portland, only the week 
before, and which coat he wore for weeks afterward, 
as a testimony against Portland Christianity, though 
his friends very soon furnished him another. 

No, it is not very likely we could be convicted of 
false statements in the face of two or three mobs in a 
week. For we were not courting persecution. We 
were not ambitious for martyr honors, nor confessors' 
crowns. But we spoke the truth, and if not the whole 
truth, certainly nothing but the truth in the love of 
God and man. And we could not often be success- 
fully contradicted, as most who heard us knew full 
well. 

Mr. Young was not countenanced by all his congre- 
gation in his strange and unwarrantable course on 
that occasion. Indeed, he was quite sharply, though 
good-naturedly rebuked by one parishioner as we 
groped our way out in the total darkness. He hap- 
pened, unfortunately, to tell us what we could not 
mistake, that it was very dark. Then responded his 
parishioner, who could hear but not see him, " True, 
Brother Young, but it is about as light as you ever 
make it for us." 



CHAPTER IX. 

MEETINGS IN WEST CHESTER— RIOTOUS AND SHAMEFUL 
CONDUCT— RIDE TO DERRY, AND WHAT CAME OF IT- 
FRANKLIN MOB DESCRIBED IN LETTER BY MR. FOSTER. 

That the churches were indeed the bulwarks of 
slavery grew every day more and more apparent. 
And as Dover, and several other of the larger towns 
have testified, it may be proper to report briefly on a 
few of the smaller places we visited, such as Auburn, 
Chester, and Derry. Auburn was at that time known 
as West Chester. Its church was Presbyterian, its 
minister, Rev. Benjamin Sargent, already introduced 
in these pages, venerable in years and rich in the 
graces of the true christian minister and man of that 
period. , 

The Methodists had a strong hold in West Chester, 
but at the center of the town, Congregationalism held 
undisputed sway and ruled with rigor not often sur- 
passed. No town ever more sternly or successfully 
resisted the anti-slavery, or other unpopular reforms. 

In conversation with a venerable deacon of the 
church on the Indian question, so prominent at the 
time of the Seminole war, he declared to me that it 
was the duty of the first settlers of the country to ex- 
terminate the Indian tribes as completely as did the 
Israelites the inhabitants of Canaan and of Midian"; 
" killing everything that breathed." He said all our 
Indian wars ever since were God's judgments, sent as 
penalty for neglecting that duty! And, moreover, 
that they would be inflicted till that duty was done. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 183 

He seemed exactly of the spirit of some Connecticut 
colonists, who, it was told, seized the territory under 
two resolutions, unanimously adopted : 

I. Resolved — That the earth is to be given to the 
saints as an inheritance forever. And 

II. Resolved — That we, being saints, do hereby take 
possession of that portion of it bounded as follows, 
etc., etc. 

I never heard that the Chester Congregational 
church, or its deacons, or minister, held ever after- 
wards any more humane sentiment towards the In- 
dians, or even the slaves, while slavery lasted. 

Our first anti-slavery meeting at West Chester was 
held in the Methodist meeting-house — adjourned 
there from the school-house, which was too small for 
half who came, the evening being Sunday. Most of 
the time was occupied by Mr. Foster, who paid the 
Methodists, who were present in large numbers, the 
compliment of presuming that they wished to know 
the exact truth as to their connection with slavery, 
that they might be governed accordingly. So he 
opened Judge Birney's tract and proceeded to read 
exactly the record the denomination had furnished 
for itself in the past as far back as 1780 ; when it was 

Resolved, That the conference acknowledges slavery 
contrary to the laws of God, man and nature ; and 
hurtful to society ; contrary to the dictates of con- 
science and true religion. 

In 1784, when the Methodist church had been fully 
organized, rules were adopted fixing the time when 
members who were already slaveholders should eman- 
cipate all their slaves, and then followed this solemn 
injunction : 

Every person concerned, who will not comply with 
these rules, shall have liberty quietly to withdraw 



184 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

from our society within the twelve months following 
the notice being given him as aforesaid. Otherwise, the 
assistants shall exclude him from the society. No 
person holding slaves shall be admitted into our 
society or to the Lord's supper, till he comply with 
these rules concerning slavery. And those who buy, 
sell or give away slaves, unless on purpose to free 
them, shall be immediately expelled. 

And then, again, in 1801, the conference declared: 
We declare that we are more than ever convinced 
of the great evils of African slavery, which still ex- 
ists in "these United States. ***** Every 
member of the society who sells a slave shall, imme- 
diately after full proof, be excluded. ***** 
Proper committees shall be appointed by the annual 
conferences out of the most respectable of our friends, 
for the conducting of the business. And the presid- 
ing elders, deacons, and traveling preachers shall pro- 
cure as many proper signatures as possible to the 
addresses: and give all the assistance in their power 
in every respect to aid the committees and to further 
the blessed undertaking. Let this be continued from 
year to year, till the desired end be accomplished. 

So much, and more of the same character, Mr. 
Foster had in hand to read to the Methodists who on 
that evening composed a large proportion of our nu- 
merous audience. And so much he read to the credit 
of early Methodism. But then he had to unfold and 
expose the terrible degeneracy and apostacy in a 
single generation. And this was his offence, though 
his testimony was still as before only what the denom- 
ination itself furnished him. 

In the year 1836 the general conference was held in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and adopted with only fourteen dis- 
senting voices this resolution : 

Resolved, By the delegates of the annual confer- 
ences in general conference assembled, that we are 
decidedly opposed to modern abolitionism ; and wholly 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 85 

disclaim any right, wish, or intention to interfere in 
the civil and political relation between master and 
slave as it exists in the slave holding states of this 
Union. 

And this resolution, though ample to the purpose of 
Foster, was a small part of the stunning testimony he 
presented to show that the northern Methodists were 
fully as guilty as their southern brethren of all the 
abominations of slave holding. For instance, he cited 
the declarations of the most eminent northern minis- 
ters and doctors of Methodist divinity. Rev. Dr. Fisk,, 
president of the Wesleyan university of Connecticut,, 
said and published to this effect : 

The relation of master and slave may, and does- 
exist in many cases, under such circumstances as free 
the master from the just charge and guilt of immor- 
ality. The text, i Cor., 7th chap., 20 to 23d verse, 
seems mainly to enjoin and sanction the fitting con- 
tinuance of their present social relations. The free 
man was to remain free, and the slave, unless eman- 
cipation should offer, was to remain a slave. The 
general rule of Christianity, not only permits, but in 
supposable cases, enjoins a continuance of the master's 
authority. The New Testament enjoins obedience upon 
the slave, as an obligation due to rightful authority. 

Only so much from a great deal by Dr. Fiske, in like 
vein and tone. And this one baptismal sealby Bishop 
Hedding, then living in Lynn, Massachusetts, as read 
in the Christian Advocate and Journal : 

The right to hold a slave is founded on this rule : 
"Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye even so to them, for this is 
the law and the prophets." 

The argument of Mr. Foster enraged as much, as 
surprised the Methodist portion of the audience. He 
showed slavery to be wholesale adultery and concubin- 
age, and that all, who upheld it by fellowshiping it 



l86 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

as christians, or fit to be regarded with anything less 
than abhorrence and execration, were partakers in 
those sins and shames. He proved, that Methodist 
church members and ministers had held, or still held 
hundreds of thousands of slaves, while pretending to 
detest slavery and to be seeking its overthrow; holding 
them as "goods and chattels," robbing them of mar- 
riage, and dooming them to perpetual prostitution, till 
the southern Methodist church had made itself a great 
house of ill-fame, a vast brothel, into which the Son 
of God himself, 1 in the person of his forlorn brethren 
and sisters, was continually and hopelessly cast ! He 
declared no house of ill-fame in New York was guilty 
of such fearful impiety, such frightful abomination. 
For there the victim or the guilty could flee out and 
escape, while in the churches they were held, were 
compelled by both religion and government, to stay 
and endure, even though their soul and spirit were 
pure as the angels of God ! 

Mr. Foster was heard an hour or more with com- 
parative order and attention. Suddenly a man rose 
in great agitation, much as a drunken man or lunatic 
some times did in our meetings, and demanded proof 
of what had been said. Nothing needed proving, as 
the church and clergy supplied all the argument, and 
the inferences were as self-evident as heat from fire, 
or light from the heavens. But instead of drunkard 
or lunatic, the man proved to be one of the leading 
members of that very church, and it required the aid 
of some of his brethren to quiet him and restore the 
order of the meeting. Foster then opened the Bible 
and read the eighteenth chapter of Revelation down 
to the thirteenth verse, and sat down, leaving the re- 
maining time to me. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 187 

The verse containing the injunction : "Come out 
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues," read in 
Mr. Foster's deep, earnest, solemn tones, produced a 
deep impression ; and a man rose with much apparent 
sincerity and asked : " Would it not be better to re- 
main in the churches and reform them?" He, too, ' 
was a Methodist brother and, we were told, was a re- 
formed inebriate. Had I known that at the time, I 
should have asked him whether dram-shops and 
brothels were fit haunts for those who had abandoned 
them, even to save the still lost ones, when everything 
and more could be done, and better done, from the 
outside ? and especially if remaining within, or 
going within, involved eating of the same loaf and 
drinking the same cup with the guilty. 

But as it was, I asked why Wesley did not remain 
in the old Episcopal church ? Why not so preach his 
doctrine as not to create schism and separation ? I 
asked if Unitarians or Universalists were ever exhorted 
to remain in their communion and work reform there, 
instead of coming out and uniting with the more 
evangelical churches into whose faith they had been 
converted. On the question of changing their religious 
preferences or beliefs, by leaving their pro-slavery 
communions to become abolitionists, I remarked that 
no such change would be required. I said, do you 
wish or prefer to be a Methodist ? Then be a Metho- 
dist with all your heart ; be such a Methodist as was 
Wesley who declared slavery "the sum of all villanies" 
which must brand a slave-holder as the sum of all vil- 
lains ; such a Methodist as was Dr. Adam Clarke, your 
own great Bible Commentator, who said and wrote : 
" If one place in hell is hotter than any other, that 
place should be appropriated to slave-holders." To 



I S8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

the Presbyterian and Congregationalist, my doctrine 
was substantially the same. To the Baptist, I asked, 
do you wish to be a Baptist, and be immersed bodily 
in the beautiful Massabesic, whose waves roll in here- 
almost to our very feet ? no abolitionist shall say you 
nay. Only carry out your own avowed principles, and 
inasmuch as you will not drink the sacramental wine 
with such as have only been sprinkled with clean 
water in baptism, or with such as will commune with 
them, they themselves having been immersed, so in 
relation to slave-holders. Have no religious fellow- 
ship with them, nor with any who do commune with 
them as christians. Exclude the slave-holder and all. 
who will not exclude the slave-holder. Not that I hold 
to your doctrine of "Close Communion," as it is called : 
but that is your affair, not mine. Your right of 
religious freedom is as good as mine, and shall be 
respected and defended by me as sacredly as my own. 
Only be consistent in other particulars as well as in 
that already suggested. And that is, do not make 
infant baptism a greater heresy, (more damnable 
heresy, the apostle would call it,) than infant stealing;, 
robbing cradles of their priceless contents, and help- 
less mothers of their innocent babes. Do not exclude 
from fellowship the infant sprinkler, and then welcome: 
the infant-stealer, the cradle-robber, the trundle-bed- 
plunderer to pulpit and sacramental supper, as of the 
same "one lord, one faith, one baptism" with your- 
selves. That, I said, is all we abolitionists have a right 
to ask. 

The meeting closed at a late hour, in good order, 
and apparently, in the main, friendly spirit. We 
appointed meetings for Monday and Tuesday even- 
ings, the latter in the school-house of the village where 
we then were. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 189 

On Monday I met the Methodist minister, and held 
with him a long conversation. He assured me he 
would gladly attend our meetings and hold discussion 
with us, but his engagements rendered it impossible. 
He gravely charged Mr. Foster and myself with incul- 
cating the most wicked and abominable sentiments ; 
accused us of the grossest misrepresentation and 
falsehood on the previous evening, and said he should 
take a public opportunity after ice were gone to expose 
us. I told him he should have been at our meeting 
of last evening and heard for himself ; for it was evi- 
dent he knew nothing at all about what was said or 
done. He insisted that he had full confidence in his 
informant, though it was plain that he had talked with 
none better than the half-crazed being, who so rudely 
and wildly interrupted our proceedings. But I again 
invited him in most cordial manner to come to our 
meetings, and proposed to go in to one of his, but he 
gave me no further attention. 

When we went to our meeting on that evening, we 
found the school-house door locked against us. This 
was done by a prominent member of the Methodist 
church, on his own responsibility ; in full assurance 
that anti-slavery sinners had no rights that Methodist 
saints could be bound to respect. A noble and gener- 
ous-hearted man of the world, opened his commodious 
dwelling, and there we held our meeting. The Pres- 
byterians were holding their monthly concert of prayer 
for the heathen, close by, and at the same hour. 
Mr. Foster left me to conduct our meeting, and went 
into the Presbyterian's concert of prayer and was per- 
mitted to address them a half hour, as afterward 
appeared to effective purpose. And whom should he 
meet there cheek by jowl with the rest, but my Metho- 
dist minister, who in the morning, assured me he 



IOO \i"1S OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

would certainly attend our meeting, "but for positive 
engagements ! " He had passed directly by our 
meeting, and gone to a Presbyterian concert of prayer ; 
what he had never in his life done before, and in all 
probability, never did again. 

Mr Foster addressed the concert on the character 
and conduct of the American Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions in regard to the heathenism of our slave system 
at home. He showed how the treasury of the Board 
was replenished by robbery. Man-stealers, and the 
buyers and sellers of stolen men, women and children,, 
not only contributors to, but controllers, with other 
officers, of the moneys raised — the price of blood, the 
very blood of Christ himself, in the person of his 
children and little ones, the price of his blood given 
in contributions to publish his name to the distant 
tribes of Africa, and the heathen world ! Showing 
from Judge Birney's American Churches, the Bulwarks 
of American Slavery, that the Board even had slaves 
bequeathed in will to its funds, by pious persons at the 
south. It was said that in the case cited by Judge 
Birney, the bequest was not accepted ; but the reason 
probably was, that to receive it, involved attendance 
"on the part of all who claimed it" at the Superior 
Court of Bryan county, in the state of Georgia. None 
will doubt this when that stupendous body, the Amer- 
ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
shall come hereafter into these chronicles for examin- 
ation. On the next morning, Mr. Foster was told by 
some who heard him at the concert, that they had 
withheld their contributions, never before having 
dreamed that the American Board was sustained by 
robbery, and controlled in part by man-stealers. 

In the course of Tuesday, we learned that attempts 
were making to close the school-house against us on 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 191 

that evening also. The plan was frustrated by our 
friends who secured the key. Then a riot was con- 
certed ; we knew that, because the zealous Methodist, 
who, on Sunday evening came so near utterly routing 
us, told us he " had labored hard more than three 
hours, to prevent a riot this evening." We always 
knew well what to expect, when ministers and other 
like good and influential men told us how much they 
feared a mob, and how hard they were working to 
prevent it, and how they hoped that now there would 
be no mob. 

On this occasion, we had a large attendance, and 
the best and most respectful attention to the close. 
But the Methodist minister did not appear. Our 
zealous Methodist friend, who had labored three 
hours to prevent a riot, was conspicuously absent. 
Some others, also, who had been quite demonstrative 
in defence of the church and clergy, especially the 
Methodist church and minister of that place, were ab- 
sent, in body, to say the least. 

All this absence was easily accounted for when we 
came out. The evening was dark and rainy. Several 
had brought lanterns. Our horse and carriage stood 
outside, with others, but ours had been singularly dis- 
tinguished. Past experience had taught us that it 
might be so, especially when good men " had labored 
hard to prevent our being mobbed." Borrowing a 
friendly lantern, we discovered that all the upholstery 
of the carriage, (a new comfortable, covered buggy,) 
cushions, whip, reins and valisses, had been deeply 
"daubed," not with the untempered Methodist ''mor- 
tar " of those days, nor the super-fragrant eggs of 
Sanbornton Bridge, which our readers cannot have 
forgotten, but with an anointing quite as unsavory 
and unclean, furnished by some grass-fed and well 



102 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

fed Chester cow. The Methodist minister, a Mr. 
Quimby, had assured me he would be with us that 
evening and take part in our meeting, but for positive 
pre-engagement. He was surely well represented 
outside the school-house, and had no need to attend 
himself. 

Next day but one, all damages were repaired in 
time for us to drive over to Deny. There, again, we 
fell into Methodist hands. Both the Congregational 
and Presbyterian pulpits and churches had long be- 
fore proved themselves impervious to anti-slavery 
truth by word or deed. Accidentally, we encountered 
the Methodist minister, Mr. Hazeltine, who seemed to 
speak us kindly, and tendered us his meeting-house 
for two evenings. We blessed and thanked him de- 
voutly, and soon had notices posted about the village 
accordingly. Then we drove away two or three miles, 
to look up some abolitionists of whom we had heard 
but never seen, and to extend, as widely as possible, 
notice of our meetings. At the hour appointed we 
were at the meeting-house, but, to our surprise and 
disappointment, we found the door locked against us. 
Nor was anybody in sight of whom we could ask ex- 
planations. We went into a shoemaker's shop to make 
inquiry, and were told "the brethren" had been to- 
gether, and unanimously vetoed the kindly offer of 
their minister. We demanded of the minister, who 
came in, what the strange procedure meant. He said 
that since he had offered us the house he had seen 
the West Chester minister, who, it appeared, had 
scampered down after us as quick as possible, to 
sound an alarm, and that he had given such report of 
our meetings in his parish that it was not deemed ad- 
visable to have anything to do with us. For his own 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 93 

part, he said, he was still in favor of our having the 
meeting-house, but the Discipline did not warrant it, 
as he had not appointed the meetings. 

It somehow got abroad in the village that we were 
in the shoemaker's shop, and very soon the room, en-' 
try, steps and all, were thronged with a noisy, babbling 
rabble that it would wrong the real brutes to call 
brutal, all burning with indignation, because, as they 
most vociferously declared, we were seeking to tear 
down the Church and the Sabbath. I never met a 
more abusive gang in any grog-shop. We congratu- 
lated the minister on the number and quality of his 
defenders. The three most prominent, the actual 
leaders, were all members of his own church. One of 
these taunted Foster with wearing spectacles. This 
raised a great laugh. I asked the man, " Do you 
know God could, with one lightning flash, so blind 
you that, even with spectacles, you could never see 
more ?" Another of them said, " The Chester Meth- 
odist minister was here to-day, and told us you called 
his church a brothel." Then one cried out, " O, they 
know what a brothel is!" which raised a yell of glee, 
with clappings and stampings that shook the whole 
building. "Yes, yes," bawled another, "their looks 
show it." And this, to them, minister and all, seemed 
to clinch the argument wholly in their favor. The 
victory was theirs. We admitted it, and left the town 
to celebrate and enjoy it to all hearts' content. I 
never heard that a genuine anti-slavery meeting was 
ever held in that town. There might have been. 
Doubtless, New Organization lecturing might have 
been called in to take away the reproach and shame 
of driving away the earnest and devoted abolitionists, 
who had taken their lives in their hands and gone 
forth everywhere, proclaiming liberty to the captive, 



194 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

whether guilty men and ministers would hear, or 
whether they would forbear. Both those ministers 
were New Organizatioriists of most Pharisaic type. 
And both declared they preached, themselves, once a 
year, on slavery, though they always selected Fast or 
Thanksgiving day for that subject. And both seemed 
to think that entitled them to our acceptance and 
respect as abolitionists. As we drove slowly out of 
the village, in the dark evening, and with sad hearts, 
the crowd of " brethren " and others from the shoe- 
maker's shop pursued us with their shouting and 
howling, some of them seizing our carriage wheels 
and holding back so that our poor little Tunbridge 
had hard work to pull us out of their power. What 
they wanted was to provoke us to resistance. Then 
they would have taken sweet revenge by violence on 
our persons, perhaps to the extent of Lovejoy's mur- 
derers at the west, a few years before. We never 
doubted that our non-resistance principles saved our 
lives in many a desperate encounter. And in them 
and their heroic Author we confidingly reposed our 
trust. Nor surely, under the circumstances, could 
we have pursued a wiser course, whatever might have 
been our principles. For we stood almost always 
nearly alone against the towns, at first. 

In the account thus given of our reception in some 
of the smaller or average New Hampshire towns, the 
object can hardly be mistaken. Almost exactly such 
reports could be extended to length beyond human 
patience and endurance. And without going out of 
New Hampshire, or including any other persons than 
the three already named, the editor of the Herald of 
Freedom, Mr. Foster and myself. 

It must not be supposed, however, that we did not 
find or make excellent friends and glad co-workers 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 195 

with us in our mighty mission. We lived, when 
abroad, much of the time on the fat of the land ; 
only metaphorically as to the. fat, for we entered the field 
vegetarians, and Foster so continued tili age, infirmity 
and medical men counselled him otherwise, though 
possibly, neither wisely nor well. 1 always doubted 
it. We collected money, and in two years paid off 
the society-debt and bought press and type and office 
appointments for the Herald of Freedom. We broke 
down the Democratic party soon after, and did vast 
damage to many pro-slavery churches and pulpits by 
exposing them to the light of day and truth. My 
salary the first year was exactly eighty-three cents a 
day. The second year I was voted four hundred dol- 
lars, all collections above that sum to be paid into the 
treasury of the society. And Mr. Foster's pay was 
probably less, but he often insisted on a too liberal 
division with me, on the ground that 1 had a wife and 
he had none. 

In West Chester were, besides Rev. Mr. Sargent, 
whose faithfulness cost him his pulpit, Mr. Benjamin 
and Mr. Amos Chase, not brothers, only in soul and 
spirit, whose anti-slavery devotion was too deep and 
divine for human praise. Sadly as our carriage suf- 
fered, they did not permit it nor us to leave the place 
till all damage was repaired and everything rendered 
clean and sweet, and new, so far as necessary. Once 
afterwards Lucy Stone and myself had an engage- 
ment there, and no conveyance could be had nearer 
than two miles and a half. Two or three inches of 
snow had fallen that day, and the road we had to take 
was through woods, and not a track had been made. 
No conveyance possible, I proposed to walk on to 
Amos Chase's and send him back for my companion, 
while I would commence the meeting alone. To this 



196 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Lucy bravely objected, saying her bloomer dress and 
calf-skin boots, made like mine, would carry her safely 
through with me on foot. And they did. She was 
hardly-willing to allow me to carry her bag a part of 
the way. It was pitch dark some time before we ar- 
rived, and the soft, damp snow had wet our feet as 
though we had walked in water all the way. Mr. 
Chase insisted that I should wear his boots to the 
meeting, and socks, as well. The family took Lucy 
away, and, as she told me next day, put her in a com- 
plete change from head to foot, which perspiration, 
added to the wet snow, had made absolutely neces- 
sary. Had West Chester been Uerry on that night, 
our situation must have been deplorable indeed. But 
we knew into what hands we should fall, and so 
trudged cheerily, though wearily on, through darkness, 
forest and snow. Mr. Benjamin Chase still lives, an 
honor and ornament to the best rural society of the 
Granite state. 

Most of the mob violence yet described, has been 
rather of the harmless sort, so far as bodily injury is 
considered, since Mr. Foster and myself together took 
the field. And Mr. Foster has hardly yet been heard 
through the Herald columns. He shall now have his 
turn, and readers will soon see to what purpose. 

In the same month, (or within four weeks, a part of 
two months), of our Chester and Derry encounters, we 
attempted to hold some meetings in Franklin. I told 
Foster it rather appeared to me that he could give a 
better account of our experiences there than any one 
else, and besides, that it was time for him to do part 
of the reporting, were it only for the sake of variety. 
Though dreading a pen almost as much as a sword, 
in his own hand, he reluctantly consented ; and the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. I 97 

following description, every word, every way as truth- 
fid as it is graphic, is his own verbatim letter, as in 
the Herald of Freedo?n, "of November 19th, 1841 : 

ANOTHER MOB — THE PULPIT ITS ORIGIN. 
To the Rev. Isaac Knight, pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Chit rc/i in Franklin ; 

Sir — Impelled by a sense of duty to you, to your 
flock and the public, I sit down to address you relative 
to the recent outrage that was perpetrated upon an 
anti-slavery meeting in your parish, and by persons 
under your immediate supervision. That transaction 
has inflicted a blot upon the character of your once 
respectable village, which time will not soon efface. 
It has degraded it in the eyes of all who respect 
either the laws of God or man, by openly setting both 
at defiance, trampling under foot the rights of the de- 
fenceless and unresisting, and spurning every appeal 
to the claims of justice, humanity and pure religion. 
That savages and barbarians, whose trade is war, and 
whose only law is the dictates of unchastened pas- 
sion, should occasionally indulge in acts of brutal 
violence, is not surprising. But a mob among chris- 
tians, under the very eye of the pulpit, and in de- 
fence of that pulpit fills the mind with astonishment- 
It is sad proof that the pulpit and mob are identical 
in spirit and coincident in their aims ! 

My object in this communication is to call the at- 
tention* of all who will take the trouble to read it, to 
the origin of those disgraceful proceedings, which 
have earned for Franklin the unenviable reputation of 
having riotously broken up and dispersed an anti- 
slavery meeting ; but more especially to hold up a 
mirror in which you will be able to see your own 
character and that of your fellow craftsmen. Like 
David in the matter of Uriah and Saul of Tarsus in 
the martyrdom of Stephen, you are doubtless uncon- 
scious of your guilt. But will not posterity and a 
coming judgment assign to you the authorship of 
that outrage ? 

Was it not through your influence, aided by that of 
your clerical coadjutors, that your parishioners were 
induced to trample upon their own laws, brutally 



ICjS ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

assault the friends of liberty, and transmute the quiet 
and security of their village into uproar and lawless 
violence? Such I solemnly believe to be the fact. 
Am I mistaken in this opinion ? Let a rehearsal of 
the scenes of that dismal night, and of your con- 
temptuous treatment of the anti-slavery cause on the 
previous Sunday, answer. Notice had been given, 
through the Herald, that brother Pillsbury and my- 
self would hold anti-slavery meetings in your parish 
on Sunday and Monday evenings, in which all parties 
would be allowed a hearing, and in the discussions of 
which all would be allowed to participate. Your 
meeting-house was closed against these meetings, and 
you were generally understood to regard them as a 
nuisance, and those who were to conduct them as in- 
fidels and "dangerous men." You had said that you 
" would sooner co-operate with fiends from perdition 
than with them." So inveterate was your hostility, 
that our friends thought it useless tj ask you to read 
a notice of the meetings. One was, however, posted 
up within the walls of your meeting-house. But it 
soon fell a sacrifice to the piety and loyalty of your 
parishioners, and shared a kindred fate with the meet- 
ing it was designed to notify. 

No inconsiderable portion of the people of Franklin 
regard you as their spiritual guide. Your opinion on 
all moral subjects is their supreme law. Wherever 
you lead, they implicitly follow. What you recom- 
mend, they cordially support. What you repudiate, 
they feel religiously bound to oppose. I knew this, 
and that your hostility to anti-slavery would, in all 
probability, deter most of them from attending our 
meetings. I knew, also, that they were profoundly 
ignorant of the character of our enterprise, and of 
their own guilt as accomplices and abettors of south- 
ern man-stealers, and that they were likely to remain 
so. To enlighten, and, if possible, to reclaim them 
from theidolatrous worship of a slave-holding religion 
to the pure doctrine of the gospel, was my aim and 
purpose. For that purpose I attended the meeting- 
over which you have assumed the authority of a 
"Rabbi," which is to say, being interpreted, (a) 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 1 99 

Master. In doing this, I was clearly within the rights 
guaranteed to me in the New Testament. The meet- 
ing was public. Everybody was invited to attend, 
and by the law of God, which you profess to preach' 
all who were present had an equal right to speak. I 
chose to avail myself of that right in behalf of the 
despairing bondsman, who has neither Bible, Sabbath 
day nor marriage institution. But, no sooner had I 
commenced speaking than the house was thrown into 
utmost disorder and confusion through your agency. 
Your abrupt descent from "the sacred desk," and 
exit from the house, was the signal for a general re- 
treat. The meeting-house was instantly in uproar. 
Seeing their "guide" retire, about two-thirds of the 
vassal audience immediately followed. But they went 
out at your beck, and not prompted by their own con- 
sciences. They were anxious to hear,' but were afraid 
of displeasing their master. But, having satisfied the 
claims of the pulpit, as they supposed, by leaving the 
room, most of them remained in the entry, literally 
choking up the doors, so desirous were they of hear- 
ing what I had to say. A few had the courage to re- 
turn and resume their seats after you had left. 

Evening came, and brought together an unusually 
large number for an anti-slavery meeting, but your 
seat was vacant. " Here are the sheep," thought I, 
as the seats of the capacious town hall were rapidly 
filling up with men and women, some of whom were 
from a distance of three or four miles, "but, where is 
the shepherd ? He fancies they have broken loose 
from the fold, and that wolves are among them. Has 
he left them and fled ? Is he indeed a hireling?" 

The exercises of the evening elicited a good degree 
of interest. After some preliminarv remarks from 
brother Pillsbury, I addressed the meeting for nearly 
two hours, on the slave-holding character of the 
American church and ministry. The audience was 
unusually solemn and listened "with marked attention 
and much apparent interest and conviction, while the 
religious professions of the country were successfully 
shown to be at war with Christianity, and to constitute 
the main bulwark of slavery. Every sect in the country 



200 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

was shown to be more or less contaminated with the 
spirit of slave-holding, while in most of them, man-steal- 
•ing is not a disciplinary offence. Nor is it regarded as a 
sin, as is apparent from the fact that many of their 
most popular ministers are man-stealers ; and their 
theological seminaries, such as Andover, Princeton, 
and Middletown, teach the doctrine that man-stealing 
if accompanied by mild treatment, is not sinful. 

As our remarks on Sunday evening were confined 
to the church and ministry, I was not a little surprised 
on entering the meeting on the following evening, to 
find there a large number of men and boys " of the 
basest sort," some drunk, some sober, apparently much 
exasperated at our doctrines, and determined, if pos- 
sible, to put a stop to their spread. They could not 
endure to hear their ministers and churches so tra- 
duced, and had come to their defence. The leader of 
this gallant band, a Mr. Hilton, whose intoxication was 
only zeal for the honor of the church, rather than of 
new rum, was in shirt sleeves, as the insignia of his 
office. Several others had appropriate emblems. The 
room was filled with a dense, fetid smoke, which was 
exceedingly annoying, and rendered respiration in 
some parts of it difficult. On examination, it was 
found that these fumes proceeded from breathing 
holes of perdition in a remote part of the room, which 
Satan had contrived to open for our special annoyance, 
through the lips of some half a dozen of your young 
parishoners, by means of some ignited tobacco leaves, 
which he had caused to be rolled into the shape of a 
pig's tail, and put into their delicate little mouths. 
Brother Pillsbury commenced speaking, but was soon 
interrupted by the talking and racket of these young 
gentlemen of the cigar. Finding it difficult to proceed, 
he remonstrated against such rude behavior, and 
expressed his regret that youth of so much promise 
should, in an unguarded hour, suffer themselves to be 
made a cat's paw by their parents and other superiors 
in age, to tear in pieces the sacred charter of the lib- 
erties for which their ancestors bled ; and which it 
should be their highest honor to inherit and transmit, 
unimpaired to posterity. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 201 

This appeal was not without effect upon most of 
those for whose particular benefit it was intended. 
But the speaker had not proceeded far when he was 
again interrupted by an outburst of holy indignation 
at his infidelity and irreverence for man-stealers and 
their abettors from an opposite quarter of the house. 
This proved a more serious affair. Captain Hilton, 
accompanied by his tipsy corporal, one Kimball, made 
a pass at the speaker. Their feelings, it appeared, 
had been deeply wounded by some of the speaker's 
remarks, and nothing would appease them short of a 
total retraction of the obnoxious sentiments. They 
were no non-resistants. They had embraced the 
Christianity of the Concord church. They wanted 
satisfaction and they knew how to obtain it. Brother 
Pillsbury coolly replied to their demands that he had 
spoken the truth and should make no apology for it. 
" Damn you," said the captain, " you have slandered 
and abused all our ministers and churches, and every- 
thing that's good among us." " Damn you," cried 
another, " you shall take all that back ; " and imme- 
diately seized him by the collar. The room at this 
time exhibited a scene of dreadful confusion and 
alarm. Observing that the women were preparing to 
leave the house, I left brother Pillsbury in the hands 
of his assailants and to the protection of his heavenly 
Father, and passed to the other side of the room for 
the purpose of allaying their fears and encouraging 
them to remain. 

As the crowd had by this time become so dense 
around brother Pillsbury that I could not approach 
him, I stepped upon the railing and with much 
strength of lungs, succeeded in raising my voice 
above the uproar that filled the house. My expostu- 
lations with the mob on the meanness of disturbing a 
free meeting, where all enjoyed equal privilege of 
being heard, succeeded in restoring quiet, when it 
was found that brother Pillsbury, with an unresisting 
demeanor, had protected himself from personal in- 
jury, although for a time entirely in the power of 
infuriated drunkards ! Order being restored, he 
resumed his remarks. 



202 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

But the mob were not yet satisfied. They hi d not 
fully vindicated their character nor that of the church 
and ministry from the slanderous accusations of the 
anti slavery agents. After the lapse of about three- 
quarters of an hour, most of the rioters retired fn m 
the hall. Joined, as we supposed, by a new recruit 
from the bar-room, they soon came back and com- 
menced a hideous noise in the entry, which entirely 
overpowered the speaker's voice, and gave signs of 
another brutal assault. Several persons, not abolition- 
ists, attempted to hush the noise, but to little purpose. 
One of them called upon the constable to take the 
leaders into custody, but he declined on the ground 
that he had no precept. I took occasion to remind 
this scrupulously conscientious political " minister of 
God " that when I entered your meeting-house for the 
purpose of preaching the gospel in an orderly man- 
ner, it was not thought necessary to obtain a piectpt 
in order to dispose of me ; but that any member of the 
congregation who chose, the minister himself not ex- 
cepted, turned constable and thrust me from the house. 

Finding it impossible to proceed with our exercises, 
brother Pillsbury and myself felt it our duty to shake 
off the dust .of our feet and leave the place. This 
we did by a short, though solemn testimony, zgaii st 
all those through whose agency the meeting had 1 een 
broken up. While recording that testimony, a death- 
like silence pervaded the room. Evt n the infuriated 
ranks of the besotted rioters that were momentarily 
threatening to break forth upon us, were overp< wered 
by its fearful import, and they silently retired in dis- 
may at the terrors of the c< ming judgment, leaving 
us to return in safety and unmolested to our lodgings. 

Such are the prominent facts connected with this. 
disgraceful outrage. It only remains for me to sub- 
mit the question whether, in view of them, I am not 
fully justified in the opinion that you were the guilty 
author. What possible interest had Mr. Hilton and 
his associates in the breaking up of our meetiig? 
The anti slavery enterprise does not and cannot mo- 
lest them. They have nothing to fear from the prev- 
alence of free principles. The mob was on your be- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 203 

half. Its avowed object was to defend your charac- 
ter, and that of the church and ministry generally, 
against what it professed to regard as the slanderous 
accusations of the abolitionists. 

How is it, sir, that the bar-room has disgorged it- 
self to furnish a body-guard for the pulpit ? Why 
are the most vicious of your citizens so jealous of your 
reputation ? Can we suppose that they acted contrary 
to your wishes in this matter ? Men may oppose, but 
will rarely defend us by means which we do not sanc- 
tion and approve. 

You declared you "would sooner co-operate with 
fiends from perdition than with Rogers and his coad- 
jutors !" 

Is not this mob alarming proof that you are co- 
operating with fiends from perdition in the perpetuity 
of slavery, and not with Rogers and his coadjutors in 
its overthrow? Respectfully yours, 

STEPHEN S. FOSTER. 

Andover, Mass., Nov. 7, 1841. 



CHAPTER X. 

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE — RIOTOUS BEHAVIOR OF THE 
STUDENTS— STRAFFORD COUNTY ANNIVERSARY— EAST 
ERN RAILROAD AND ITS JIM CROW CARS-OUT- 
RAGES ON COLORED PASSENGERS. 

Franklin was but a specimen of New Hampshire, 
and Mr. Knight was in immense majority, and Dart- 
mouth college was helping to keep the number of his 
kind good, if not increase it. At Franklin, the rioters 
were mostly boys, set on or led on by some old enough 
to be their fathers and grandfathers, drunk on rum or 
rage, spleen and spite, but doing the will and pleasure 
of church and minister. Their ribaldry was as offen- 
sive as their blasphemy. What we most feared, had 
most reason to fear, was that some indiscreet friend 
of ours might be impelled to resist their outrages of 
word and deed by force. True, the provocation was 
very great. But had such resistance been made, even 
to a single blow, however slight, it would have filled 
the hordes surrounding us with fiendish delight, and 
bloody scenes must inevitably have followed. Since 
the war of the rebellion, almost every ruffian appears 
to be armed with dirk, pistol, or both, ready for use at 
any moment. It was not so then and there, but I long 
kept in my cabinet stones and other missiles, includ- 
ing heavy bullets, which had been hurled at me and 
my brave companion, through windows, or as we 
walked or rode along the streets to or from our meet- 
ings. We read in New Testament times of a Stephen 
stoned to death by a mob. I traveled and worked 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 205 

with another Stephen who would have cheerfully 
suffered similar fate. And who shall say it would not 
have been in an equally holy cause ? And. in deep 
humility and sincerity I can say we together passed 
through many scenes where it would have been our 
joy, and true honor, too, to fall as did the ancient 
Stephen, could our cause have been best subserved 
thereby. But it was only in extreme peril that my 
constitutional cowardice was so far overcome. Mob 
violence was ever my aversion and dread, till deep in 
the midst of it. Brave old military heroes have often 
told me that they trembled at the outset, and till after 
the first few shots had been exchanged. Then there 
was no more fear. I could well understand them. 
But not so my friend Foster. He seemed ever cool 
and serene, before and through the fiercest encoun- 
ters. Nor did any one ever see him exultant, in his 
most brilliant successes. But to return to our 
narrative. 

The next experiences and their results to be de- 
scribed occurred, soon after at Dartmouth college, 
which introduced me to society and scenes unknown 
before. 

The question has often been asked me, sometimes 
in letters from distant states, at what college I re- 
ceived my education. It always sounded strangely in 
my ears, when remembering that at seven and twenty 
there was not a harder worked, nor working man, 
young nor old, in my native state of Massachusetts, nor 
my involuntarily adopted state of New Hampshire, at 
four years old. At twenty-four, I joined the Congre- 
gational church, in Henniker. To me, it was the 
most sacred, solemn step of my whole life. There 
had been none of those dark, despairing convictions, 
so frequently felt and described, and still less had 



206 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

there been any of the raptures, the "joy unspeakable 
and full of glory," that so many experienced, and 
even loudly boasted. I waited for such, long, earn- 
estly, expectantly, and confidently. A doubt that 
such were necessary had not entered my mind, though 
many around me gave sad evidence in their lives and 
conversation after their experience, that even the most 
intense anguish of conviction and exttaic joy in the 
hour of conversion, were no assurance of regenera- 
tion or change of heart. The reasonableness, wisdom 
and righteousness of the divine requirements were 
made so plain to my understanding, and the observ- 
ance of them, according to my enlightenment, so 
necessary to the highest happiness and welfare of the 
human race, that in the very love of them, I accepted 
them, irrespective of all questions of perdition as 
penalty or paradise as reward. Educated almost 
from infancy in the Congregational Sunday-school, 
and corresponding religious teaching with scrupulous 
care and faithfulness at home, it was easy to assume 
as true all the doctrines of our denomination, trinity 
atonement, total depravity and election, as well as 
everlasting rewards and retributions. If away beyond 
my comprehension, I remembered how many great 
and holy men had embraced and defended them ; how 
many godly men and women had died martyrs for 
them on torturing racks and in burning flames, and 
who in my situation could doubt their truth without 
violence to every pulsation of soul and spirit? 

And so I entered the church tremblingly, but re- 
solved to the best of all I was, or could become, to 
adorn my profession. And whatever duties were 
taught me as a christian professor, I endeavored to 
perform. Temperance and anti-slavery were among 
my first espousals ; the former with the approval of 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 207 

and encouragement of our pastor, but the latter rather 
in spite of him. Our first anti-slavery lecture was 
delivered in the Methodist meeting-house, by Moses 
A. Cartland, then a most excellent Quaker school- 
teacher and principal, if not founder, of the once well- 
known Clinton Grove school, in the adjoining town of 
Weare. It was in the spring of 1 835, while I was yet 
with my father and family on the farm. The lecture 
was a calm, serene, but truthful and faithful presen- 
tation of the wrongs of the slave, the crimes and 
cruelties, the outrages and abominations inseparable 
from the slave system ; but all delivered with the 
gentleness and spirit of Lydia Maria Child, from 
whose writings he frequently and liberally quoted, 
and several older members of the church than myself 
were deeply impressed by the important truths we 
heard. Not so, however, the minister and most of the 
leading church members and officers. A general town 
meeting was called at the town house, and speeches 
were made and resolutions adopted denouncing and 
condemning the anti-slavery agitation and all who 
abetted or encouraged it. And similar meetings 
were held in many towns all over the state, and 
their proceedings were published in the newspapers. 
At this time, and for three or four years after- 
ward, the agitation had not jarred the founda- 
tions of church or pulpit to such a degree as to pro- 
duce the winnowings, the separations and rendings 
that were to ensue in 1839 and 1840, when in very 
deed judgment had to begin, and did " begin at the 
house of God /" Till then, there were many in the 
churches, ministers as well as others, who hated 
slavery and were willing it should be abolished if the 
peace and sleep of their organizations be not thereby 
disturbed. But so it could not be. In our church at 



208 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Henniker, temperance was held and preached as a 
cardinal christian virtue. The church covenant re- 
quired of every member " total abstinence from ar- 
dent spirits as a drink," as early as 1835, if not before. 
Had the ministers espoused and proclaimed the doc- 
trines and duties of anti-slavery as earnestly, most of 
the church would as cordially have embraced them. 
My anti-slavery gave some offence, especially when 
once a slaveholder came and preached in our pulpit, 
and I absented myself from meeting solely in conse- 
quence. But only few held with me, and none had 
gone so far as to refuse sermon and sacrament from a 
slaveholder, though several men and women approved 
my course in such refusal. 

It was to the question however, at what college my 
education was obtained, that I proposed to answer a 
few words, and directly in continuation of the matter 
in hand. In prosecuting our mission, Mr. Foster and 
myself found ourselves at Hanover, and the gates of 
Dartmouth college, from whence Foster had graduated 
only three years before, and with more than ordinary 
college honors. I had never before seen the interior 
of that, nor of any other college, in my life ; and to 
academies and high-schools I was scarcely less a 
stranger. 

The annual meeting of the Grafton county society 
had been already held, but in the south part of the 
county, a full day's drive from Hanover, and a similar 
convening seemed desirable in the northern section, 
and Hanover was the selected place. It was a full 
week, however, before any house could be found in 
which to assemble, and the committee were at length, 
after that delay, compelled to call our meeting at the 
dancing hall of the principal hotel. Neither church 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 209 

nor college would open to us a door, nor condescend 
to give us any reason why we were so summarily 
denied. 

At the time appointed, however, the convention 
assembled in encouraging numbers, was duly organ- 
ized, opened with prayer, and we proceeded to busi- 
ness. Henry C. Wright, of Philadelphia, formerly a 
Congregational minister, Mr. Foster, and myself 
were present as principal speakers, though all persons 
present were cordially invited, as was our invariable 
custom, to participate in the discussions. The first 
resolution presented was to the effect that in any 
moral conflict, strength and success depended, not so 
much upon numbers, as on inflexible adherence to 
principle. An interesting debate ensued, which occu- 
pied the remainder of the morning session, when the 
resolution passed unanimously, and we adjourned 
till afternoon. 

At two o'clock we again assembled, when after 
prayer the following resolution was offered : 

Resolved, That every person in the nation, north or 
south, who is not an open abolitionist, is by his influ- 
ence, sustaining and perpetuating slavery, and should 
be regarded by every friend of humanity as a virtual 
slave-holder. 

This resolution was the order for afternoon. A 
clerical agent of the new organization came also among 
us. He moved an amendment diluting the resolution 
to his taste and temper. And as church, college and 
village made a large part of the audience after closing 
all their doors against us, the original resolution was. 
rejected, by small majority. In the evening, our 
resolution read as below : 

Resolved, That American slavery is a complication 
of the foulest crimes ; robbery, adultery, man-stealing, 
and murder; and should therefore be immediately 
and unconditionally abolished. 



2IO ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The college students crowded themselves together 
and were very disorderly, both before and after the 
exercises began, clapping, hissing, and hooting, in 
most indecent and vulgar manner. Mr. Foster opened 
the discussion in an address of wondrous eloquence 
and power of argument, showing how slavery was all 
the resolution charged and a great deal more, and 
that logically, morally, every way, the slave-holder 
must be robber, adulterer, man-stealer and murderer. 
Then he illustrated what these crimes meant in slavery; 
how a man-stealer must be as much greater than a 
horse or sheep-stealer, as a man is better and greater 
than sheep or horse. Then he asked : " How much 
greater is a man than a sheep ? " " Who in Dartmouth 
college can solve that problem? Who?" And yet, he 
declared, " those monsters are hourly stealing the very 
Christ who died for them, in the person of his little 
ones. For inasmuch as they do it to the poorest, 
blackest of his children, they do it unto God ! And 
to Christ his Son. All this, not to speak of the other 
capital crimes mentioned in the resolution. And who 
perpetrates these outrages ? They are ministers, 
bishops, elders, doctors of divinity, deacons, and 
church members, presidents and professors of colleges 
and theological seminaries." And he declared, "those 
at the north who fellowshiped such as christians and 
christian ministers, are bad as they. They voluntarily 
make themselves man-stealers and robbers, adulterers 
and murderers, in position, all of them ; and many of 
them in heart. We do not see them do the deeds, 
and so we hold them innocent. But what would you 
say if President Lord, of your own college, should be 
seen carrying home at night, a stolen sheep ? or buy- 
ing one he knew had just been stolen ?" 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 211 

From that time, the order and quiet of the conven- 
tion were no more. But the disturbance did not 
begin then, it was only mightily increased. It com- 
menced before the opening prayer, and did not wholly 
cease during the evening. There were those, not all 
boys, who, during some of Mr. Foster's most thrilling 
appeals, and blood curdling descriptions, would keep 
up their scraping, whistling, and snickering, as though 
they were in some cheap circus or minstrel show. 
Possibly on some battle-field in the Rebellion, they 
learned their mistake. 

For a time we were completely silenced by the 
uproar. The editor of the Hanover Amulet, who hap- 
pened to enter at that moment, said in his next paper: 
" Judge of our surprise when we entered the hall where 
we supposed every heart beat in unison with sympathy 
for the oppressed, to find general tumult and confu- 
sion," which tumult continued through the evening 
with greater or less atrocity to the very last ; and the 
clerical new organization agent added greatly, and 
seemed to enjoy greatly, the outrage. 

But no explanation which Mr. Foster could make 
availed anything. For a long time, he had no hearing 
at all. When he obtained the ear for a few moments, 
he abjured utterly, any disrespect to President Lord 
or to the college. He only wished to impress on the 
minds and hearts of his hearers, the awful wickedness 
of slavery, and not less of the north, especially the 
northern church and clergy, in fellowshiping as 
christians, these monsters of iniquity — that for Dr. 
Lord he had only profound respect ; and with good 
reason, he said, for he had ever been as a father to 
him, both while he was at college and since he gradu- 
ated ; and that sooner should his tongue cleave to the 
roof of his mouth than be guilty of uttering one word 



2 12 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

to his injury ; but all to no purpose. He was con- 
stantly hissed and insulted till he closed his remarks, 
and afterwards, if he attempted to speak, until we 
closed the meeting. 

Henry C. Wright was not much better received, 
though in most pathetic word and tone, he depicted 
the condition of the enslaved, completely, hopelessly, 
and to their last breath, in the power of those who had 
been proved beyond all possibility of doubt, robbers, 
and adulterers, man-stealers and murderers ; cruel, 
remorseless, relentless as death. Mr. Wright was 
heard, with more or less interruption, nearly half 
an hour. 

The next speaker was the new organization minis- 
ter. He was from some place in Massachusetts. In 
rather a sneering, contemptuous manner he asked, 
not the mob, but us who had called the meeting, if he 
might speak. He had surely heard the resolution 
offered, and seen it adopted unanimously, that " all 
persons present be invited to participate in the delib- 
erations of the convention." In his conventions and 
meetings, no such resolution was ever offered, speak- 
ing and voting being always insolently denied to 
women, even such women as Abby Kelly, the Grimke 
sisters, and Lucretia Mott. He, of course, as in the 
afternoon, strenuously opposed our resolution, and 
presented a stupidly modified and diluted substitute. 
The solemn and pathetic address of Mr. Wright had 
produced a deep and desirable impression on many 
minds, and the object of the substituted resolution 
and its mover was to efface it. His low, vulgar wit, 
the farthest possible remove from the searching de- 
scription and appeal of Mr. Wright, was loudly 
cheered and applauded by the uproarious crew for 
whose benefit it was uttered. Very sapiently, he quo- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 213 

ted the law of his state of Massachusetts as to what 
constituted murder. He was applauded and approved. 
Mr. Foster responded from his seat with the scripture 
law, " He that hateth his brother is a murderer," and 
was loudly hissed. As the best our opponent could 
do with the scripture allusion as a higher law, he be- 
gan a taunting strain of remark about our being, not 
an anti-slavery society, but a non-resistance, no-gov- 
ernment association ; and gave as his proof that we 
quoted scripture instead of ordinary, legal definitions. 
This false and foolish charge, two or three times re- 
peated and boisterously applauded, was all the irrele- 
vant matter thrust upon us in a business way. No 
notice was taken of this, except by Mr. Wright, who 
very coolly remarked that an anti-slavery convention 
was not the place to discuss non-resistance. Our op- 
ponent admitted that the resolution was strictly true 
in every charge but that of murder. In our argument 
we had not alluded to scripture at all on any of the 
counts in the resolution. We had judged slavery by 
ordinary statute and the natural rights of common 
humanity. At this point, we asked our opponent 
whether to shoot down, or tear in pieces with trained 
blood-hounds, a poor slave who, under cover of night, 
was quietly, peacefully fleeing to Canada for freedom, 
was not murder ? " No," he said, " not legal murder," 
and this answer elicited applause loud and long, mak- 
ing the floor to tremble under our feet. From this 
time, if not indeed long before, all sense of honor, 
propriety, decency, was disregarded. The women 
present had before retired in disgust, and it seemed 
probable that we who had called the convention 
would no longer be suffered. But Foster determined 
to make one more effort at a hearing. Seizing on a 
moment of comparative silence, in a loud voice he 



2 14 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

proceeded to say that he had a few days before visited 
Hanover, to secure a place for this convention, but 
was unable to procure any place whatever that was 
controlled by the college ; that he then applied for 
this tavern hall, and, after some delay and delibera- 
tion, he secured it, at the not unreasonable price of 
three dollars a day ; that it had been our intention to 
continue the convention two days and evenings, but 
such had been the confusion and uproar of this even- 
ing, and such the manifest intention, if possible, to 
hinder the orderly and quiet prosecution of our busi- 
ness, the meetings will be closed to-night ; and the 
responsibility of disturbing and breaking up an open, 
free-discussion, anti-slavery convention, may rest on those 
to whom it justly belongs. 

These remarks, in good, strong, earnest tone and 
spirit, made a deep impression. Many had not before 
comprehended the position in which they had placed 
themselves and their college. One young man, after- 
wards a professor in a theological seminary, rose and 
attempted what proved a most lame and impotent de- 
fence of the rioters. He said it was the custom of 
the students to express their approval or disapproval 
of whatever passed before them in this way ; that an 
attack had been made on Dr. Lord, an honored and 
respected officer of the institution, and it was not 
strange that those who honored and venerated him 
should thus manifest their disapprobation. And be- 
sides, the students themselves had been reproached, 
and took this method to express their displeasure at 
that also. One or two others also spoke to about the 
same import ; one adding to other charges, that our 
"speeches were wild and windy," and another, that 
they "were long and tedious." 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 215 

Glad at seeing any change for the better in the 
temper or methods of our opponents, I ventured, for 
the first time during the evening, to occupy a few 
minutes, and began by assuring the meeting that it was 
not strange, since the president and college professors 
had driven the poor slave to the tavern hall as the 
only place where, with their approval, his friends 
could assemble to plead his cause, the students, imi- 
tating their spirit, should come here also to drive 
us from this, the slave's last refuge. I reminded 
them that this, like all our meetings, was open 
to free and friendly discussion ; unlike most assem- 
blies, as free to our opponents as our friends. 
We learned afterwards that the committee of the 
Congregational meeting-house, which was also refused 
us, was composed in part of the college faculty, the 
very chairman of the board being one. I said further, 
what surely was always true at that time, that we found 
the most violent opposition to the anti-slavery cause 
among the so-called "educated ministry," and that 
from this time we could not be surprised at it, for here 
at college, they see the doors of meeting-houses, ves- 
tries, lecture rooms, shut against us, and commence 
their hostilities by driving us even from tavern halls, 
Here to-night, I said, we see what the candidates for 
the ministry can do through hatred to our movements, 
and in imitation of the spirit of those under whose 
tuition you have placed yourselves ; and everywhere 
we are seeing and feeling what you may do when you 
come to be ministers. I said that my own life had 
been anything rather than a student's life ; that, 
though I had traveled and lectured extensively 
throughout New York and New England, singularly 
enough, I had never, till to-day, seen even the outside 
of a college (we thought of that, exclaimed one in 



2l6 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

the crowd) ; and I hoped as to moral character, that 
what we saw here, was not a fair specimen of our 
higher institutions of learning ; though I felt com- 
pelled to say. that, judging from the spirit and posi- 
tion of the clergy and most of our educated men on 
the great questions of moral reform, I feared most of 
our large seminaries of learning had not been much 
misrepresented by the students of Dartmouth college, 
here to-night. It did not surprise me that by this 
time the tumult was renewed by some of the younger 
portion of the disturbers, nor did I greatly regret it, 
for I felt that my rebuke was as necessary as it was 
richly deserved ; and that kind of hostile demonstra- 
tion only clinched tighter the argument. Many 
endeavored to hush the confusion and some cried 
loudly, " Hear him, hear him." But I had closed my 
remarks, and kept my feet till it was possible to be 
again heard, and then moved that the convention be 
now finally adjourned; which was immediately put, and 
carried unanimously. And with that closed my first 
and last connection with any college. And now the 
question is answered ; at what college I obtained my 
education? The answer; my collegiate education, at 
Dartmouth ; and all in one day. There needed no 
more. One or two later, fiercer, college mobs added 
nothing new, nor important to my stock of knowledge 
in that department. 

Still, why blame the students ? They had good rea- 
son to suppose they were serving the college, and 
doing the will of its officers. It was no worse for 
them to mob us out of the hotel hall, than it was for 
their masters and the church authorities to send us 
there, by shutting us out of every other place. Our 
cause was then passing through its most fiery ordeal. 
The time having come "that judgment must begin 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 217 

at the house of God," church and pulpit, college, 
university and theological seminary seemed to have 
made treaty, offensive and defensive, against it. Most 
of those institutions, as well as the academies and les- 
ser seats of learning, were then, as always, largely 
under clerical control. The writings of President 
% Lord, of Dartmouth college, on slavery and the abo- 
litionists, were fearful. Some of them lie before me. 
In the light of the "Golden Rule," of Confucius, and 
of the Sermon on the Mount, centuries after, they are 
infamous. Amid the blazing terrors of Fort Wagner 
and Port Hudson, the torments of Andersonville and 
Libby prisons, they are truly diabolical. Shall we 
blame the pupils of such a president for a few hours 
of rude, indecent and vulgar behavior, and riotously 
breaking up of a county convention with welcome 
entrance to what might have been a free, friendly 
anti-slavery discussion ? Verily, no ! 

Andover Latin Academy and Lane Theological 
Seminary had driven away large numbers of their 
bravest, most conscientious and high-minded students 
by downright pro-slavery intolerance. Canaan, New 
Hampshire, Academy, had been broken up for the 
unpardonable sin of admitting a few colored pupils on 
equal terms with the white, by vote of the people in 
legal town meeting assembled. A committee was ap- 
pointed for the business, and, as officially reported in 
the JV. H. Patriot, the edifice was lifted from its 
foundations, and by three hundred men and a hun- 
dred yoke of oxen was hauled out of town. The 
most respectable and wealthy farmers in the place 
assisted in service like that at the bidding of the 
slave-power, which then ruled supreme. Well does 
Senator Wilson, in his History, ask in his account of 
it, " Could the fanaticism of slavery go farther than 



2l8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

that? how demoralized the community which could 
furnish the actors in such a drama, and applaud it 
when enacted ! " 

But "the fanaticism of slavery" could and did go 
a great deal farther than that, as Senator Wilson and 
his country learned to their cost, in the coming years. 

Miss Prudence Crandall, a benevolent and philan- 
thropic woman of the Society of Friends, had her 
school in Canterbury, Connecticut, utterly broken up 
and routed for the same offence as that of the Noyes 
academy at Canaan. Her's was a school for girls, 
and the outrages attending the transaction were some 
of them too shameful to be told. Town meetings 
were held, resolutions offered and discussed in words 
harder than bullets ; Mrs. Crandall was arrested, 
thrust into prison, dragged to trial, and, though ac- 
quitted by the court, was re-arrested, tried over again, 
and this time convicted. Her counsel filed a bill of 
exceptions, and appealed the case. By the highest 
tribunal in the state the verdict was overruled. Then 
a ruffian crowd assailed her house, and destroyed it, 
and the pupils were all sent to their homes, to return 
no more ! 

We could easily forgive the rioters at Dartmouth 
college. And moreover, a clerical new organization 
agent was present, greatly to encourage them. The 
churches had already been proved, by their own vol- 
untary testimony, "the bulwarks of American slavery," 
and nearly all the large literary and theological insti- 
tutions in the land were buttressed about them. We 
forgave the students, remembering who it was that 
said, " It is enough for the disciple that he be as his 
master, and the servant as his lord." 

This chapter will close with a highly descriptive 
and instructive account of the annual meeting of the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 219 

Strafford County Anti-Slavery Society, in 1842, at 
Dover, much of it from the pen of Mr. Rogers. It 
was largely attended, and continued three whole days 
and evenings. Many resolutions were discussed and 
adopted with entire unanimity. The most important 
are given below. The first was offered by Rev. John 
Parkman, then Unitarian minister of Dover : 

Resolved, That our devout acknowledgments are 
due to that Almighty Power whose arm has sustained 
us so graciously in every stage of our enterprise, for 
the encouragement furnished to future exertion by 
the successes of the past. 

The resolution was earnestly supported by the 
mover and Mr. Garrison, and unanimously adopted. 
The next were as below : 

Whereas, According to the recognized interpreta- 
tions of the United States Constitution, and the uni- 
form practice of the federal government, the free states 
arc pledged to the support of slavery j and whereas, 
southern slaveholders, by their oppression and cruelty, 
are doing all in their power to incite their slaves to re- 
sistance, at the same time relying upon our aid to de- 
liver them in their hour of peril ; therefore, 

Resolved, That we solemnly warn the whole country 
that, come what may come, compact or no compact, 
Constitution or no Constitution, Union or no Union, 
neither duty to God nor allegiance to law would ever 
allow us to obey any requisition of government call- 
ing us to put down by arms any rising of the slaves. 

Resolved, That it be recommended to abolitionists 
to call town meetings in their respective towns, to 
consider those terms of the federal compact which 
have been construed to bind them to the support of 
slavery, and whether they would comply, should they 
be called upon to do so by the United States Govern- 
ment. 

Resolved, That the church that has set and that con- 
tinues the example of the negro pew, (and which 
example has been so eagerly followed by the proprie- 
tors and conductors of our steamboats and railway 



220 ACTS OF AXTI-SLAVERV APOSTLES. 

cars,) is guilty of an attack on the works of the great 
Creator which gives convincing assurance that it is 
not governed by the spirit of Christ, nor the fear of 
that God who is declared to be "no respecter of per- 
sons." 

Resolved, That the Eastern Railroad corporation, in 
compelling its sers r ants to outrage people of color by 
invidiously commanding them out of respectable into 
inferior cars, and even in dragging them out by force 
and violence, is cruelly proscriptive and insulting to 
our common humanity. 

Resolved, That in the rejection, by the United States 
senate, of the nominations of Messrs. Everett, Wilson 
and Eastman, upon the alleged ground of opinion in 
regard to slavery, we see another proof of the undue 
predominance of southern interests in our national 
legislature, and we regard the expression of pub- 
lic sentiment recently manifested upon this point as a 
sign that the free states are becoming sensible of this, 
and of the connection between their own rights and 
the assertion of the rights of the slaves. 

Resolved, That the omission of the United States 
senate to confirm the nominations of Everett and 
others, on account of their anti-slavery opinions, just 
named, reveals the horrid truth that the South holds 
slavery to be the paramount interest of the country ; 
and that the resentment manifested at this refusal by 
the pro-slavery northern press betrays the humiliating 
truth that the North regards the rejection of party 
nominations as a greater insult to liberty than the en- 
slavement of one-sixth part of the people. 

Resolved, That the course of Andover theological 
seminary in attempting, through some of its profes- 
sors, to justify American slavery from the Bible, in 
openly opposing the anti-slavery enterprise, and in 
giving to the community a ministry that has generally 
proved itself the sternest obstacle to the progress of 
anti-slavery truth, has been such as should excite the 
deepest apprehension and alarm for the cause of hu- 
manity and of Christianity, and calls loudly for the 
severest rebuke of every abolitionist. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 22 1 

Subjoined are the editorial remarks of Mr. Rogers, 
in the Herald of Freedom : 

The Dover Meeting. — We had intended a full 
account of this great and interesting and most im- 
portant convention, for this week. It was the more 
necessary as the report of the officers of the meeting 
is so condensed and bare. The proceedings lose much 
of their intrinsic force by the compressed form in 
which they are presented. Several resolutions, for in- 
stance, that were acted on separately, are given in one 
and as if passed together. We are about starting to 
accompany Brother Pillsbury to Hancock and Fran- 
cestown to a series of anti-slavery meetings, and can 
say now but a hasty word and be more particular here- 
after. The meetings were held in the old Court 
House, a very convenient and comfortable room, and 
well employed ; and as lit as a meeting house would 
be, and more free. There was a goodly attendance. 
The mass of the people did not come in. They were 
not advised to by their controllers. The ministers did 
not as they ought to have done, give the people notice 
and exhort or encourage them to attend. They did 
not want them to. They wanted them not to. They 
were there themselves, led by curiosity, or policy, or 
fear, or all three. The Rev. Mr. Young was there, 
in nervous but heartless attendance, during the entire 
meeting. > He looked on verily like a priest and a 
Levite. The Rev. Mr. Horton was in and out, with 
his sneer and his laugh, looking and acting more like 
a jolly friar than a christian. He is professionally en- 
gaged in reading Church of England service Sundays, 
and that is the worship of his sect. Nothing would 
be deemed by him "a greater insult," he asserted to 
some one during the convention, " than to be called 
an abolitionist." Nothing, we remark, would be so 
deep an insult to abolitionism. " I would not be 
caught shaking hands with Mr. Lloyd Garrison," he 
said. 

We intend to give a full and particular representa- 
tion of the meeting, and of the part acted by promi- 
nent opposers in attendance as well as the abolition- 
ists, if we can get time before we forget it. It was a 



222 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

marvellous meeting', and there were marvellous human 
developments there which would instruct the times if 
they could be graphically delineated. Hogarth would 
be the narrator to give the demeanor of a pro-slavery 
minister or politician at an anti-slavery meeting. 

This is all for which Mr. Rogers had time during 
the week of the convention. Attending other meet- 
ings with Mr. Foster and myself the next week in 
other counties, to which his presence added great 
charm and force, prevented but a few more remarks 
on that at Dover, in the next Herald, to this purport; 

The Dover Meeting is not forgotten, but un- 
avoidably deferred. We have never attended a meet- 
ing of any character so splendidly sustained and so 
orderly, voluntarily and beautifully conducted. It 
was a self-governed meeting. Our nominal president 
declined keeping order; and when, once or twice, some, 
who came in to dispute, called for order and bred 
some little disorder, he threw the meeting on its 
self-government, and all was quietness. Oh, that the 
people, the laboring people, the toiling people, the 
livelong-day working men, and the women, whose task 
is never done, oh, that they had been allowed to be 
present and hear the truths that would have found 
response in their unsophisticated hearts! They were 
not allowed to be there. They were discouraged 
away by the unprincipalled politician and the Jesuiti- 
cal priest. How shall anti-slavery get at them ? 
Must it go with Foster into the synagogues on Sun- 
day, and speak to them in the face of the cannon's 
mouth and bayonet's point ? When shall anti-slavery 
find a chance to speak to the people .' We were amazed 
above measure to hear brother Francis Cogswell and 
Rev. Brother Young eulogizing Garrison. " I have 
been highly pleased with Mr. Garrison," said brother 
Young. Brother Young's being pleased or displeased, 
by the way, was infinitely unimportant. He seemed 
to think it more material than to repent of his mobo- 
cratic, pro-slavery spirit, which could outrage the 
decencies of an anti-slavery meeting, last winter, in 
his own meeting-house! He declared solemnly, the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 223 

■second evening of the convention, that he was pleased 
with some of the proceedings of the meetings ! an in- 
direct clerical blow at other of the proceedings — viz. 
'at the apostolic plainness of Pillsbury, and the Nathan- 
like directness of the faithful Foster. He would 
compliment the infidel Garrison himself if he could 
do it at the expense of these men. "If you would 
send out such men as Garrison," said friend Cogs- 
well, "your cause would prosper." "How long have 
you been an admirer of Garrison, brother Cogswell?" 
said we. "Oh, I have not liked his writings," said 
he. " He has not written as he speaks, here." "Al- 
ways," said we, "only he speaks with more ultraism 
and denunciation than he has ever written. "Impos- 
sible! I find no fault with anything he has said 
here," said Brother Cogswell. " Everybody finds 
fault with Garrison," said we, "until they see him and 
bear' him speak. If you had read what you have 
heard, it would have been, ferocious denunciation. But 
when you see the man and hear him, it is quite an- 
other thing. And, brother Young," said we to him, 
as he stood by, praising Garrison, "brother Young, 
we never shall hear anything from you of Garrison's 
infidelity hereafter. Remember that." * * * * 
* * * The Strafford-county anti-slavery society 
is auxiliary to the N. H. anti-slavery society. We 
mention the auxiliaryship, for, on that point, our 
friends were strenuously assisted by the genius of new 
organization under the treacherous form of neuterism. 
A few clergymen, afraid to espouse the unpopular 
side of old organization, and ashamed of the revealed 
infamy of the new, took refuge under the name of 
neutrality, or neither one thing nor another. This an- 
niversary was not of the excrescence which they con- 
trived to form. Such excrescences have no anniver- 
saries. They do not live long enough. They never 
live a year unless kept alive by external galvanic in- 
fluences. The American Union lived but a day. 
The new organization lived longer, but it was by gal- 
vanism. It has undergone a change, now, "in its 
mode of existence." It is a third political party, with 
liberty poles up and flags flying, as smart as any of 
the "nations round about." 



224 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Strafford anti-slavery organised itself as an auxil- 
iary to the old movement. And it is its grand anni- 
versary we are noticing. We spoke last week of some 
of the names in it. * * * We do not eulogize 
abolitionists as men do the politicians, but we proclaim 
their excellencies, if at all, in behalf of our despised 
and down-trodden cause. We claim for that cause 
the worth of those enlisted in it. We remind the 
scornful world that "the salt of the earth is with us." 
And we bid them beware on whom they are trampling. 
But anti -slavery leans not on the merits, however great, 
of those who have embarked in it. It is among the 
chief merits of any man, that he has espoused so glo- 
rious a cause as this. But this is delicate ground and 
we hasten from it. The forenoon of the first day was 
spent, after getting over the choice of officers, which 
being matter of constitutional obligation could not be 
dispensed with, had it been desired, but which was 
disposed of in the most summary manner possible, by 
choosing, at one vote, all the last year's officers, en 
masse, in discussing a resolution offered by John Park- 
man. A resolution touching the influence of the 
church and clergy on our enterprise had been offered 
by Brother Lunt, of Somersworth. It went to the very 
gist of the movement, and touched slavery in the apple 
of its eye. At Brother Parkman's request, it was 
deferred by the mover till the consideration of one he 
desired to introduce, which came very properly as a 
threshold topic — to wit: acknowledging obligation to 
God in view of the past successes of the cause, and 
the grounds of encouragement found in them to future 
effort. This was beautifully discussed by Brothers 
Parkman and Garrison. 

The afternoon was not, in our opinion, so wisely nor 
profitably spent. Instead of taking up Brother Lunt's 
resolution, as should have been done in its order, 
Brother Henry C. Wright, with a view perhaps to 
bring out the eminent talent present, on the constitu- 
tional question, introduced a series of resolutions in- 
volving the relations slavery sustains to that poor old 
unprincipled compact. The afternoon was wasted in 
a waste of ability on a heartless theme. There was 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 225 

much good speaking, which in Fancuil hall or any of 
our meeting houses, on some patriotic occasion, would 
have been lauded to the stars by the party presses. 
But no appeals were made to the heart or conscience 
of a slave-holding people. For one, though, we once 
labored a good deal to vindicate the old military com- 
pact from the reproach of slavery, we care very little 
about it now, as an anti-slavery question. It will move 
the hearts of the people neither one way nor the other. 
While as pro-slavery as they now are, the thunders of 
the Almighty alone can rouse their attention, or lead 
them to repentance. The awful truths of the Bible, 
not the constitution, are to be poured on their obdur- 
ate hearts. We care nothing for our obligation, one 
way or the other, under this compact, to interfere in a 
rising of the southern slaves. Abolitionists, as such 
cannot fight for the slave, nor need they tell the south 
they will not fight against him. The south don't ex- 
pect us to. She thinks, or pretends to think, aboli- 
tionists are for inciting the slaves to rise and kill them 
all. Of course the masters need not be told, nor the 
north either, that we will not take arms in behalf of 
slavery. That slavery is unconstitutional, we have no 
doubt. But the nation does not care for that. They 
will interpret the constitution as they choose to under- 
stand it. Least of all, would they ever alter their 
habits, or change their social character to suit a mere 
heartless political compact. They will hold slaves in 
spite of everything but the fear of hell. We would 
urge on them the horrible iniquity of incurring that 
awful retribution. They would fear it now but for the 
ungodly influence of the clergy. That sears their 
conscience and hardens their heart. The mind of the 
convention was perplexed by an argument on the con- 
stitution. No doubt the clergymen present were 
greatly edified and relieved by it. We put it to the 
sound judgment of all concerned, whether the subiect 
is worth our anti-slavery while. The constitution can't 
hold slaves when the great national brotherhood of 
thieves shall have relaxed their grasp upon them. 
Had the Strafford bar been present, who usually occu- 
pied the room, or had the court been sitting, the argu- 



22<) ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

ment would have enlightened their heads, if it could 
not have softened their hearts. But the convention 
was a body of plain-minded, simple hearted men and 
women, whose souls would starve on such husks as 
statutes and constitutions. 

The evening meeting was at Rev. Mr. Young's 
synagogue. He did not break it up riotously, as he 
did the meeting of our state agents last winter, which 
disorderly and mobocratic proceeding was suffered to 
pass too lightly. Had poor laborers mobbed the 
meeting, we should have treated them with much less 
ceremony. But it was the reverend and elevated Mr. 
Young, and we treated it, as well as bore it, with very 
deferential submission. It was really a ruffian dis- 
turbance. Jeremiah Young broke in upon the de- 
cency and order of the meeting with the rudeness 
and lawlessness of a ruffian. He differed from a 
drunken brawler only in form. He as clearly violated 
the right, and so did friends Cogswell and Pierce. 
They declined speaking when invited, and when they 
had the right. They held back till they were excited 
by their mobocratic minister, and then they broke out. 
They must not think to treat anti-slavery quite so 
contemptuously, and go unreproved. We ought to 
have reproved them on the spot, as riotous and dis- 
orderly men. But the evening meeting at the anni- 
versary was not disturbed. We take occasion, how- 
ever, to enter our disapproval of its arrangement. It 
was planned beforehand for the purpose of an intel- 
lectual impression. Not exactly so, but in accordance 
with that sort of policy. The ablest speakers were 
selected, instead of leaving the meeting, these among 
the rest, to its spontaneous action. Garrison and 
Phillips spoke, but not like themselves. They were 
hampered by the arrangements of the meeting. They 
were not impelled to speak. And the fugitive Doug- 
lass was mounted away up into the mahogany perch, 
where the people look up to gaze at Rev. Brother 
Young, Sundays, as the Israelites did up Mount Sinai 
after Moses, or after him who abode in the thick 
clouds about its summit. What a place for a fugitive 
slave to speak in, and to tell his simple story ! It was 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 227 

incongruous enough to be in the synagogue itself, 
where a free colored man can't be allowed a pew, as 
we understand. But it was the awkwardest of all 
places, to be mounted up among those astral lamps, 
as high, almost, as the stars. The parties all per- 
formed as well as men could under the circumstances, 
but it was no evening for the afternoon that preceded 
it. Rev. Brother Young was "delighted " with it. No 
mob dog moved a tongue, whereas, had the meeting 
been spontaneous, Douglass would have moved hearts 
of stone there, and Garrison and Phillips would have 
made the house quake through all its dedicated re- 
cesses. Brother Young was so pleased with the meet- 
ing that he condescended, the next evening, to de- 
clare his satisfaction publicly. He was pleased, he 
graciously said, with most that he had heard ; mean- 
ing, of course, the parts of the meetings we have no- 
ticed. Collins said something, at a late hour, of the 
outrage inflicted on himself and Douglass on board 
the railroad cars from Boston. Douglass gave a 
sketch of his slave experience, and of slavery itself, 
but somewhat embarrassed by his unnatural position. 
He told how he learned to read — of his conflict with 
the alphabet and the abs amid the hazards of slavery. 
He learned to write on board fences, making some of 
his early capitals with their heads downwards and 
looking the wrong way. It was laughable to hear 
him. Still, we could not help thinking of humanity 
driven to such extremity for the rudiments of knowl- 
edge, here amid the lights and professions of a relig- 
ious republic. Here, where learning is as common as 
the air, the poor slave, trodden down below humanity, 
has to steal the crumbs of intelligence that lay about 
almost within reach of the dogs in the street. Thanks 
to our missionary, theologizing, Bible-circulating, 
tract-spreading religion ! It has slaves whom it dooms 
to death for learning the letters and syllables of the 
language they have to speak, and in which they want 
to read the Bible ! 

Next morning the meeting opened tree and unfet- 
tered. A voluntary prayer was offered, not as an 
unmeaning ceremonv, as is common in fettered 



228 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

assemblies, and Lunt's resolution was called. He 
made a plain, sensible, spirit-moving speech upon it. 
Many others spoke, as mentioned in the report of the 
meeting, and with exceeding power. We hardly ever 
witnessed a half day like it ; it was an uninterrupted 
stream of solemn interest throughout, particularly the 
passage between brothers Coues and Garrison. 
Brother Coues had rarely attended anti-slavery meet- 
ings, and had been rather repelled by apprehensions 
of anti-slavery harshness and denunciation. He 
deprecated in his speech, which was very beautiful 
in manner, but we think, too full of allowance in sen- 
timent to pro-slavery claims, the denial of christian 
character to all slave-holding ; and claimed for them 
a sort of indulgence to remain in their unhallowed 
relation to their fellow-men. Garrison answered him 
in apostolic style ; and the manner in which brother 
Coues received his over-powering admonition, was 
most affecting and delightful. It was uttered with 
christian fidelity, and received with christian magnan- 
imity. Garrison's appeal was one of the best expos- 
itions of Christianity we have ever heard. Sundry 
clergymen heard it, who had doubtless often warned 
their flock against anti-slavery, on account of "the 
infidelity of Garrison." They now heard him, 
and how must the remembrance of their falsehood 
have blistered their consciences, if hot iron had 
not seared them ! * * * * 

The Dover Enquirer, one of the party presses, in the 
magnificent struggle going on in the country for the 
loaves and fishes of office, ventured the other day to 
speak of the meeting, and of our remarks upon it. 
The editor supposed he had espied out an indefensi- 
ble sentence or two, and he seized upon them with 
true pro-slavery veracity, leaving out all that common 
honesty would have published in connection, to give 
the reader opportunity to judge of the unwarrantable 
extracts. Colonel Wadleigh (for most all of these 
political editors are colonels or majors), is almost fero- 
cious for the sacred honor of the meeting house. The 
politicians and militia officers nearly all are. They 
think meeting houses are the sure defense of religion, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY ATOSTLES. 229 

as the clergy think the militia is the sure defense of 
a state, which the ministers profoundly believe. They 
have little confidence in any other security but mili- 
tary. " Trust God " they say with Cromwell, but like 
him they would emphasize particularly, "keep your 
powder dry." The editor imagines a discrepancy 
between our doubting whether we could have had a 
meeting house for our discussion meetings, and the 
fact that one was opened to evening lectures. It was 
of them of which we spoke, and not of the public lec- 
tures or set speeches. These are not near so sacri- 
legious as free discussion on resolutions. We do not 
think Brother - Young would consent to have his taber- 
nacle exposed to another discussion meeting when 
Parker Pillsbury and Stephen S. Foster were to be let 
loose among the speakers. The Rev. Brother Horton, 
of the elegant piece of gothic that stands in the shoes 
of Brother Freeman's old law office, would have hardly 
allowed Garrison to profane his solemn sanctuary. 
But they were not asked for nor offered. It was very 
convenient, for Dover has so few that are interested 
in anti-slavery, that almost any building is big enough 
to accommodate its meetings there. A "hard cider " 
meeting, to procure for the poor, bleeding, miserable 
country the relief of a couple of bank vetoes, would 
have called for a more spacious apartment. Friend 
Wadleigh would have been out at that, with a log 
cabin or musty cider cask about him in the way of 
badge, chock full of patriotic excitement. He spoke 
of our hard talk about Dover people. We have this 
to say of them, whether we said it before or not; that 
so small an attendance in so populous a village, on a 
meeting, that for magnitude of subject and for talent 
and ability in the discussion, has never been paralleled 
in New Hampshire, betrays a peculiarity of taste not 
the most creditable. A whig hurrah, or a democratic 
Van Buren row would have assembled twenty times as 
many at least, if not a hundred. The laborers of the 
place would have gladly attended, had they under- 
stood the character of our meeting and been permitted 
to go. The rulers and priests dare not have them go. 
Any laboring people under heaven, if sober, would 



230 ATI'S OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

have been delighted with that meeting. Probably 
Friend Wadleigh would not. He is a politician. Pol- 
iticians' tastes could not like it, any more than rum- 
burnt, tobacco-steeped palates can like spring water. 
O, the miserable lot of a political editor ! We know 
none more deplorable, except a rum-selling store 
keeper's or taverner's, All his life long, he has to 
stand and watch the weathercock, and drop in with its 
variations. To conclude with Friend Wadleigh, we 
ask him, if he ventures to publish anything more from 
our paper, to give enough for a sample, if he have not 
space, after giving the whig victories, to publish the 
whole. 

The second evening of the meeting went off far 
better than the first. The church and minister resolu- 
tions were discussed. The meeting was not quite so 
unshackled as it would have been out of a Solomon's 
temple. For dedication is a decayer of free discussion. 
" Sacred architecture," as Daniel Webster calls it, is 
not so promotive of free talk or thought as it is to 
something more agreeable to the apprehension of car- 
dinals and clergy. The resolutions, however, were 
pretty profitably discussed. Friend Smith, of Somers- 
worth, made a good speech. Henry C. Wright got 
Rev. Brother Young into the sled where anybody but 
a divine would have had his legs broke. A divine can 
get out of a sled where nobody else could. And if 
his legs are broke all up into fragments, he can walk 
off on them as though nothing had happened. Or, if 
he limp, he is so solemn and sacred nobody will no- 
tice it. The auditory were called on to vote. They 
could vote .as they pleased. They had a right to 
speak. So had Rev. Brother Young. But he did not 
choose, or dare to. But when the vote was about to 
be taken, he got up in true cardinal style to warn the 
congregation not to vote for the resolves. He offered 
no argument. He had none to offer. Nobody could 
have any, in truth. So he offered his ghostly warnings 
and caveats. He whined and looked solemn, and 
tried to clergy-fy the people out of their free vote. It 
was a blockhead effort. He had no right to try to 
induce that audience to vote by any other influence 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVER'S APOSTLES. 231 

than argument and reason. He did not attempt to 
offer any of either. And Rev. Brother Scott, too. of 
the Methodist-Episcopal order, who had through the 
two days kept his solemn and cunning peace, he rose 
up on the eve of the vote to interpose his sacerdotal 
authority. Peradventure some poor class-led soul 
there, had been delivered enough to follow conscience 
a short space, and vote condemnation to a church and 
clergy that enslave humanity. He groaned out his 
naked opinion with all the impudence of Yankee sect, 
and all the importance of the Episcopal high church, 
which characterizes that order of our priesthood. 
Why did he not attempt an argument, or else hold his 
tongue? What right had he to try to influence re- 
sponsible immortals by long-faced authority merely? 
It is supreme arogance, and an insult to all who have 
to hear it. Rev. Daniel I. Robinson attempted an ar- 
gument. He is a Methodist, but he is a man, also, 
and although far out of his old and right way, as we 
think and see, he does not attempt to lead people after 
him, by merely a denominational disfigurement of 
face. We detest this holy puckerism, and will scout it. 
It makes fools of men, and roguery under it is su- 
premely detestable. The resolutions passed, in spite 
of the reverend scarecrows and lamentations. 

The next morning, our Massachusetts friends 
returned to their homes, and the society met by 
adjournment to close the unfinished business ; expect- 
ing only a short morning session. Reverend Brother 
Young, Francis Cogswell, esquire, and some other dis- 
tinguished persons were promptly in attendance. 
Brother Young seemed to feel relieved, by the absence 
of the Massachusetts men, of the embarrassment which 
had kept him two days silent, and he entered bravely 
into debate. A resolution was up, censuring those 
churches that still maintain the abomination of a 
negro pew. Brother Young took hold of it with 
quite an unceremonious hand. He spoke with true 
clerical superciliousness, of the rashness and indiscre- 
tion of abolitionists, and of the inacuracy of the reso- 
lution. The church, he said, was not at all responsi- 
ble for the negro pew. They did not own the pews, 



232 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

nor build them ; it was the parish, and the church and 
paiish were two things — quite distinct — as distinct as 
husband and wife, he said. He did not offer any 
amendment to the resolution, nor take any responsible 
part in the meeting, but only condescended to show 
the absurdity and folly of the resolve, and of those 
who advocated it. Brother Cogswell spoke of "the 
confusion of ideas " that seemed to prevail there, in 
mistaking pew-owners for the church, and in suppos- 
ing that the churches had the real estate in meeting- 
houses, and the regulation of negro pews. He denied 
that there were any such pews, and so did Brother 
Young, and called for proof. In reply it was said, 
after thanking the gentlemen for condescending to our 
debate, that there was some "confusion of ideas" in 
the meeting, but that it still appeared to abolitionists 
that the allowance of such an infernal exclusion in a 
house of worship, as negro pews, was the prerogative 
of the church and clergy who led the worship and 
accepted the house and the act of parish — that it was 
not a question of estate, but of unrighteous distinc- 
tion ; that as to the existence of it, the existence of 
the colored people in the country, might as well be 
questioned and as reasonably attempt to be proved. 
The pertinency of the comparison to " man and wife," 
by Brother Young, when speaking of church and par- 
ish as two distinct things, was remarked on, as not 
expressive of vast separation, inasmuch as they twain 
were one flesh, etc., whereupon Brother Young denied 
that there was any prejudice against colored people, 
or desire to exclude them— referred to distinction 
between domestics and employers, by way of showing 
that there was none between white people and colored. 
On being routed from that by innumerable instances 
of negro pews, and the like exclusions all over the 
country, which were poured in upon him by the meet- 
ing, the reverend brother adroitly retreated upon 
this, that he had not denied the existence of prejudice, 
but that it was only against the color of the skin. It 
was against something else, he said ; a matter which 
nobody had agitated, or cared about ; a poor attempt 
to get off, not candid, nor true. But these great 



ACTS (il ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 233 

meetings should have reporters. That Dover meeting 
fully reported, would have been one of the most 
entertaining and instructive ever holden. The elo- 
quence poured forth on that occasion, should not be 
lest. * * A report of it would fill a 

volume ; and whoever began it would finish it. 

So far the Herald report of Mr. Rogers. Surely 
but for him, the outside world would have known very 
little of one of the most remarkable and important 
anti-slavery conventions ever held in the state or the 
nation. A note was struck in it which rang out loud 
and long over New England and round the land, as 
will be seen, if these chronicles get truly and faith- 
fully recorded, even though to but limited extent, 
which may be their chief calamity. A few special 
explanatory remarks on the resolutions adopted, 
may still be in place for the benefit of those 
whose fathers and mothers had no active, friendly 
hand in the mighty moral upheavals of that period. 
And surely they were almost the whole nation then, 
whatever may be the boast of to-day. 

The first resolution, though wholly devotional, had 
in it no unmeaning cant, for our movement was strictly 
moral and religious, and probably a large majority of 
the convention were devout members of some chris- 
tian church. 

The resolution declaring our determination not to 
aid in the rendition of escaped slaves, was at that 
moment especially proper, were it only as an agitating 
and educating instrumentality. The constitutional 
obligation was then beginning to be more strenuously 
insisted upon, as anti-slavery sentiment increased. 
And the way to Canada was more and more patron- 
ized, and many faithful conductors were found for the 
underground railroad up to that city of refuge from 

is 



234 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

our republican, democratic system of whips and 
chains, blood-hounds and red-hot branding irons. 
And the lore of college and university and the wis- 
dom and piety of the theological seminary had been 
called in or voluntarily tendered in support and sanc- 
tification of such diabolical doings. And the great 
body of the clergy, as well as the rank and file of 
both political parties, were ready spaniels, sharp of 
scent, fleet of foot, to run and bark, to catch and 
hold as bidden. And this explains the reason why we 
publicly resolved that we would not obey the fugitive 
slave law. 

The two long resolutions relating to the nomina- 
tion of Edward Everett, as minister to Great Britain, 
with two other appointments of less significance, 
hinted at a good deal more than was true. No such 
refusal was meant or intended, nor certainly for any 
such reason as was held out. Neither was there really 
reason for abolitionists to stoop to pick up such 
crumbs of comfort from the circumstances, as some of 
us appeared to hope. It was not regard for northern 
rights which led to such little resistance as was made. 
It was only fear of disturbance in the party ranks, 
and dread of loss of party supremacy. 

And then as to Mr. Everett's anti-slavery senti- 
ments, the south had no fear of them. He had al- 
ready given full proof of his subserviency, at sundry 
times and in divers manners. The slaveholders fre- 
quently chastized their slaves, not for any offence 
committed, but only to remind them that they were 
still slaves, and must know and keep their place. Mr. 
Everett was now called to a new *and high dignity, 
and it seemed proper to his northern masters, or at 
least prudent, to impose a few cracks of the cow- 
skin, were it only to quicken his memory, as well as 



A.CTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 235 

movement, in their foreign service, to them at that 
time, nearly as important as any at home. Mr. Everett 
was a member of congress in 1826, when an amend- 
ment was submitted to the federal constitution, which 
brought up ''the vexed question" of slavery. Then 
came his opportunity to declare what he called his 
"confession of faith" on the terrible problem. His 
large learning, gained at Harvard and the institutions 
of Germany, and especially scripture learning, for it 
must be remembered, he was Reverend Edward Everett, 
led him to strictly examine and expound to his fellow 
congressmen the true meaning of the Greek word, 
dou/os, as used in the New Testament. His speech 
on the occasion was printed under his own supervision, 
and the following is a paragraph : 

The great relation of servitude, in some form or 
other, with greater or less departure from the theoretic 
equality of man, is ///-separable to our nature. I know 
of no way by which the form of this servitude can be 
fixed, but by political institution. Domestic slavery, 
though I confess not by that form of servitude which 
seems to be most beneficial to the master, certainly 
not that which is most beneficial to the servant, is not, 
in my judgment to be set down as an immoral and 
irreligious relation. I cannot admit that religion has 
but one voice to the slave, and that this voice is ''rise 
against your' master." No sir ; the New Testament 
says, "slaves obey your masters ; " and though I know 
full well, that in the benignant operation of Christian- 
ity which gathered master and slave around the same 
communion table, this unfortunate institution disap- 
peared in Europe, yet 1 cannot admit that, while it 
subsists, its duties are not pre-supposed and sanctioned 
by religion. It is a condition of life, as well as any 
other, to be justified by morality, religion and interna- 
tional law. 

In another paragraph, Mr. Everett declared : 
Sir, I am no soldier ; my habits and education are 
very unmilitary ; but there is no cause in which I 



236 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

would sooner buckle a knapsack on my back, and put 
a musket on my shoulder, than that of putting down 
a servile insurrection at the south ! 

In 1834, Mr. Everett was elected Governor of 
Massachusetts. The anti-slavery enterprise then in 
its fourth year, had already greatly agitated the north 
and south, and filled the latter with apprehension and 
alarm. While northern politicians of both parties 
were clamoring for the suppression of TIic Liberator 
and other anti-slavery publications, as " incendiary 
matter" Governor McDuffie of South Carolina, in his 
message to the legislature, pronounced slavery "the 
corner-stone of the republican edifice." And he 
moreover declared that the laws should punish such 
interference with slavery as that of the abolitionists, 
by death, without benefit of clergy. 

And Governor Everett, of Massachusetts, in his 
message to the legislature, responded on this wise : 

Whatever, by direct and necessary operation, is cal- 
culated to excite an insurrection among the slaves, 
has been held by highly respectable legal authority, 
an offence against the people of the commonwealth, 
which may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at com- 
mon law. The patriotism of all classes must be 
invoked to abstain from a discussion, which, by exas- 
perating the master, can have no other effect than to 
render more oppressive, the condition of the slave ; 
and which, if not abandoned, there is great reason to 
fear, will prove the rock on which the union will 
split. 

Surely, with such a record as this, unsullied by any 
anti-slavery blemish except of most indirect character, 
and above all, never having by word or deed expressed 
sympathy or approval towards the anti-slavery enter- 
prise, it is hardly possible that the south felt any fear 
or distrust of Mr. Everett, as ambassador to the court 
of Great Britain. If we cannot trust him, the slave 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 237 

power might well have asked, whom can we trust ? 
They first whipped him with seeming rejection, that he 
might not forget who were his masters, and then con- 
firmed his nomination. 

The outcry raised against the south, by the north- 
ern pro-slavery press, for its apparent distrust of 
Mr. Everett, is well characterized in the second of the 
two resolutions at the Dover convention. It was the 
rejection merely of a party nomination ; not any insult 
to liberty ! 

All three of the nominations named in the resolu- 
tions, were confirmed ; the other two were New 
Hampshire men. Hon. Joel Eastman was appointed 
to a local position in his own state, and Gen. James 
Wilson to be surveyor-general of Iowa. 

The other resolutions in the report relate to some 
prescriptive outrages perpetrated on persons of color 
by the officials of the Eastern railway, then running 
from Boston eastward through Lynn and Salem. The 
church setting the example of a " negro pew," ex- 
tending often to the sacramental table, as well as to 
seats in the meeting-houses, the Eastern railroad made 
haste to follow it in arranging its passenger cars. A 
"negro car," always inferior in convenience and com- 
fort, was provided, and all colored people, men, 
women, children, well-dressed or ill, cultivated and 
accomplished, or barbaric and rude, were driven into 
it. Charles Lenox Remond, an elegant, highly-bred 
colored man, a perfect gentleman in whatever exalts 
and ennobles manhood, an intimate friend of Lady 
Byron, and other of the most distinguished personages 
in Great Britain ; and Frederick Douglass, now so 
well and widely known in two hemispheres, intimate 
while abroad with the like of 0"Connell and other 
eminent men of the two houses of parliament, both of 



238 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

these, on returning from their foreign travels, were 
subjected to such cruel indignities, and two or three 
times with added and most aggravating accompani- 
ments. 

Senator Wilson, in his " History of the rise and fall 
of the slave power in America," volume first, page 
492, refers to " the unchristian prejudice " which induced 
the regulations adopted by railroads to exclude persons 
of color from the ordinary passenger cars, and com- 
pelling them to ride in cars by themselves, or sometimes, 
without regard to tastes, character or means, in " sec- 
ond-class cars," bare and comfortless, the enforced re- 
ceptacle of all who from any cause, could not, or 
would not take seats in first-class cars. The two cor- 
porations in Massachusetts, which were prominent in 
making and enforcing these odious regulations, were 
the Eastern and the Boston and New Bedford. * * 

* * * In the year 1841, David Ruggles, a colored 
man of New York, who had aided six hundred of his 
countrymen in escaping from slavery, was ejected from 
the cars against the earnest protest of Rev. John M. 
Spear, for the simple offence of taking a seat with 
white passengers. He brought an action in the New 
Bedford police court against the employes of the com- 
pany for an aggravated assault. But Justice Crapo 
discharged promptly the offenders. On the Eastern 
railroad, scenes of violence were of frequent occur- 
rence. Colored persons of character and intelligence 
were, in several instances, violently dragged from the 
cars occupied by white passengers ; and in some cases 
their friends, who remonstrated against such brutality, 
were treated in like manner. Among those forcibly 
ejected from the cars, was Frederick Douglass. * * 

* * * T'hg general agent of the Massachusetts 
anti-slavery society was repeatedly insulted while trav- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERV APOSTLES. 239 

eling on that road, for remonstrating against its un- 
just and inhuman usages. In one instance he re- 
ceived blows and kicks, from the effects of which he 
did not recover for a number of weeks. Once, a 
colored man being ejected. Dr. Daniel Mann and sev- 
eral other white passengers remonstrated, when they, 
also, were seized and dragged violently out and pro- 
hibited from pursuing their journey, "unless they be- 
haved themselves ! " Dr. Mann brought an action in 
the Boston police court against the conductor of the 
train, but could obtain no redress for such high-handed 
outrages. * * * Charles Lennox Remond 
was a native of Salem, a colored gentleman of intelli- 
gence and worth, and of highly preposessing man- 
ners. In England, where he had spent nearly two 
years, he had vindicated the cause of the oppressed, 
and had won the confidence and applause of the 
British abolitionists. He was everywhere hailed as 
the champion of his race, and treated with most 
friendly and respectful consideration. He bore from 
England the warmest sympathies and best wishes of 
the friends of emancipation. He was commissioned 
to bear the address of sixty thousand Irishmen to 
their countrymen in America, headed by the names of 
O'Connell and Father Mathew. Arriving in Boston, 
he went to the Eastern railroad station to take passage 
for his home in Salem. • He was not allowed to take 
his seat with other passengers, put was compelled to 
occupy what was called the u Jim Crow " car. Several 
of his white friends, wishing to welcome him on his 
return, met him at the station and took seats with him. 
They were, however, ordered by the conductor to 
leave the " Jim Crow " car, voluntarily, or to be removed 
by force ! Thus was this gentleman of character and 



240 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

culture, fresh from his travels and the hospitalities of 
the best families of England, rudely and roughly 
treated on his arrival in his native state. 

And Senator Wilson could have named others be- 
sides Dr. Mann, who suffered similar indignities and 
for the same reasons. James N. Buffum had traveled 
extensively in Britain with Douglass, addressing im- 
mense anti-slavery meetings ; but in his own town of 
Lynn, with him was dragged out of railway cars, 
making no resistance except to cling to the backs of 
the seats, which, as they were athletic men, they gen- 
erally brought out with them, "one in each hand." 
The railroad authorities at length became so indig- 
nant that they refused to allow the trains to stop in 
Lynn at all. And for several days the rule was en- 
forced. At one time they sent a police-officer with 
the trains to see that their atrocious mandates on 
the subject of negro hate were obeyed. One 
day Mr. Buffum saw a white man riding in the 
cars with a pet monkey in his lap. He good-naturedly 
asked the conductor : " How is this, that you drag 
out ( the connecting link,' as you call the colored man, 
and permit the two extremes, the white man and the 
monkey, the opposite link on the brute side, to 
ride unmolested as any white gentlemen ? " The 
conductor did not reply. He had his orders and must 
obey them. And the shameful "Jim Crow" car con- 
tinued, with occasional outrages, till public opinion 
rose indignantly on legislation, and compelled enact- 
ments sweeping them out of existence. " The negro 
pew " in churches can still be found, north, east and 
west, as well as south. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DISCUSSION ON CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS BY REV. MR. 
PUTNAM AND REV. MR. SARGENT — HILLSBOROUGH 
COUNTY CONVENTION AT HANCOCK — AND MEETING 
AT NASHUA, BY MR. FOSTER, AND WHAT CAME 
OF IT. 

The Strafford-county anniversary has occupied much 
space, but discloses the genius and spirit, philosophy 
and methods, of the anti-slavery enterprise ; and could 
the addresses and speeches have been reported and 
published with the proceedings, the wondrous ability 
of at least some of its advocates, would have been no 
less apparent. The editor of the Herald earned un- 
payable thanks for his glowing descriptions which are 
as just and truthful as they are brilliant and beautiful. 

New organizanion was now asserting itself, and 
gave us some inconvenience, chiefly through clerical 
influence and action, as the following incident will 
reveal : 

In the winter of 1841, Rev. Rufus A. Putnam, Con- 
gregational minister, of Chichester, proposed an even- 
ing discussion with our faithful friend, Rev. Mr. 
Sargent, of West Chester, on the question : "Are our 
church organizations christian?" Happening that 
week to be at home in Concord, and the moon and 
sleighing favoring, I proposed to Mr. Rogers that we 
attend and hear the arguments. Knowing that our 
new organized clergy, of most of the sects, were then 
in arms to defend them, he readily consented, and 
just as the sun was setting and the moon rising, we 



242 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

set out on our ride of seven or eight miles. A mile 
short of Mr. Putnam's meeting-house, where the 
meeting was held, lived Mr. Benjamin Emery, a true 
anti-slavery man, and there we left our horse and 
sleigh, and with him walked the remainder of the dis- 
tance. We arrived in time for the preliminary exer- 
cises, which were quite as many and lengthy as at the 
ordinary Sunday services of that day, now over forty 
years ago. Mr. Putnam read a hymn, which was sung 
by the choir. Then the Methodist minister offered 
{performed, Rogers called it), a long, miscellaneous 
prayer. The people were not impressed, nor inter- 
ested ; and it seemed a waste of valuable time. Some 
had come long distances to attend what it was pre- 
sumed would be an interesting, instructive and profit- 
able discussion, and were impatient, evidently, to get 
at the business of the occasion. It might be unchar- 
itable to presume that the unexpected arrival from 
Concord had something to do with the prolonged de- 
votional exercises. But the editor of the Herald had 
voice as well as pen, and it would have been uncourt- 
eous not to have invited him to a part in the proceed- 
ings of the meeting. But undoubtedly the less time 
allotted to him, the better it might be for the affirma- 
tive side of the question in hand. And so some were 
not surprised that prayer and praise were thus pro- 
longed, even though inopportune, for still another 
hymn had to be solemnly read and then sung. 

There was a good country audience, some, like Mr. 
Rogers and myself, having come several miles. Pre- 
liminaries being settled at last, Mr. Putnam appeared 
behind a huge pile of notes, newspapers, and other 
signs of most elaborate preparation, and commenced 
a tiresome apology, for ill health, many duties, includ- 
ing attending a funeral, and general want of suitable 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 243 

preparation and arrangement. He feared he shouid 
not be able to speak to acceptance, on account of 
bodily infirmity, but would do the best he could, 
and there were others present who would take part 
in the meeting, which was to be free to all. He con- 
tinued in this strain till we felt constrained to believe 
that he had made all possible preparation, and, be- 
sides, was not over-desirous that his opponents should 
have more time than was their right. And so it turned 
out. He had a manuscript discourse of, apparently, 
about his usual length, besides piles of newspapers, 
which he read at intervals, with dry and desultory 
comments and needless explanations, consuming quite 
two hours, in spite of " bodily ailments," which, had 
they been as described, should have kept him at home. 
His main subject, instead of being as was expected, 
the Christianity of the churches, was the infidelity and 
Jacobinism of the old organization. And he tried to 
prove it by showing that Garrison and others in Mass- 
achusetts had betrayed the anti-slavery cause, by sift- 
ing into The Liberator other subjects than anti-slavery, 
such as non-resistence and woman's rights, no Sabbath, 
no ministry, no church of Christ. He did not pretend 
that these subjects were brought openly into the anti- 
slavery society, but we were secretly promoting them. 
He read a part of the phrenological character of Gar- 
rison, as given by O. S. Fowler, to prove his secretive- 
ness, and that he did not tell everybody all he thought. 
And Rogers and Pillsbury and Foster had introduced 
these subjects into New Hampshire, and Garrison and 
Rogers had even carried them to England. He read 
with all the emphasis at his command, something from 
a print he had brought, advocating the right and pro- 
priety of unlimited intercourse of the sexes, and 
placed it with his other documents, which he had given 



244 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

his audience to understand were publications of old 
organization abolitionists. That was a little too atro- 
cious for Mr. Rogers. He at once rose and demanded 
of him "the author of that beastly stuff!" and, 
moreover, why he read it here. Mr. Putnam admitted 
that it was not an anti-slavery publication, but then 
Garrison associated in convention with persons of 
such sentiments, though he by no means presumed he 
held them himself. " But why, then, produce them 
here, and read them as though you believed, and in- 
tended your hearers should believe, that he both held 
and inculcated them?" I had till that moment 
thought Mr. Putnam honest, but easily influenced by 
his abler clerical brethren ; though I could never have 
suspected him of any such duplicity, not even as a 
"pious fraud." Had not some one been there, how- 
ever, to arraign him, probably many present, and 
nearly all his own people, would have supposed such 
"beastly stuff" old organized anti-slavery morality. 
The purpose was palpable that by such reckless au- 
dacity he expected to prove that the abolitionists were 
promoting the most shameless libertinism, under the 
guise of anti-slavery. Had he been let alone, he 
doubtless would have done it, at least to his own sat- 
isfaction, and to the great delight of all who implicitly 
trusted him. And yet we certainly always regarded 
Mr. Putnam as, on the whole, one of the very best of 
the new organized ministers. But there he was in a 
dilemma like that. Self-convicted, too. Mr. Rogers 
charitably attributed it to ministership. The end he 
imagined to be right. Of the means there need be 
no scruple nor hesitation. Mr. Rogers said, and 
doubtless truly, that had the device of reading that 
filthy newspaper been perpetrated in a law court, it 
would have excluded the daring offender from the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 245 

court, and the rabble that haunt the court-house would 
have spurned him from their groggy circle. In his own 
words, Rogers, in describing the scene in the Herald, 
farther said : "There is some regard for principle in 
a desperate game of sharps before a jury ; but. not a 
shadow of any in a church trial. * * * * Every 
man's and every woman's experience, who has had 
trial of them, can testify that this is true. * * * 
* * We are not speaking of the clergy as men, 
aside from their office. But bring the church into 
straits; disturb their denomination ; touch their cler- 
ical power, and they will out Herod the evil one him- 
self in their obliquity. Literally they stick at 
nothing." 

Certainly every word of this was warranted by 
what we saw that evening. But at the end of nearly 
two hours' weary reading and not less tiresome talk- 
ing, Mr. Putnam sat down. Once in the time, his op- 
ponent in the discussion, Rev. Benjamin Sargent, 
asked him one simple question. He was reading a 
charge against the Methodist church, relating to sla- 
very, made by Stephen Foster in some printed paper. 
Mr. Sargent asked if the charge were not true. Mr. 
Putnam declined to answer. One of his church mem- 
bers came to his rescue, and in most flippant tones 
protested against any interruption. When Mr. Rogers 
asked why Mr. Putnam read the "beastly" newspaper 
he did, the same church member had interposed, and 
quite officiously, as if in some sense the armor-bearer 
of his chief. He said " Mr. Putnam might as well 
answer forty questions as one." Of some questions, 
he could more easily have answered forty thousand, 
than the single one then asked. 

Mr. Sargent, in his brief reply, expressed a just and 
proper regret that the question proposed, had not yet 



246 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

been even appnoached. He asked what the opinions 
of William Lloyd Garrison, on the sabbath question, 
the non-resistance, or woman's equality questions had 
to do with "The Christianity of Church Organiza- 
tions ? " to consider which the meeting had been 
called. He had no objection to stating what were the 
views of Garrison on all those subjects. As to the 
Sabbath, he showed and proved that Garrison held 
exactly with the Quakers, and they with John Calvin, 
Martin Luther, Archbishops Paley, Whately, and sev- 
eral others whom he named. On non-resistance he 
cited Jesus, the Christ, in the whole letter and spirit 
of his memorable sermon on the mount. For woman's 
equality in the church, he quoted him who said : 
"there is neither Jew nor Greek; bond nor free; 
male nor female." He spoke of sectarianism as 
non-christian, as a denial practically, of the christian 
name and faith ; that as there was neither Jew nor 
Greek, male nor female, so there could be neither 
Congregational nor Presbyterian, Baptist nor Metho- 
dist ; and consequently, that our church organizations, 
whatever else they may be, or may not be, are surely 
not Christian, nor even Paulian. He thought Mr. Put- 
nam admited that sectarianism was unchristian, by his 
frequent association with his neighbor, the Methodist 
church. Mr. Putnam denied that his association with 
Methodism was frequent. Mr. Sargent said he had 
been told moreover, that a member of Mr. Putnam's 
church had been excommunicated for attending 
Methodist meetings. That, too, Mr. Putnam denied. 
But we were assured on the spot that it was true, and 
that the person was then present. Mr. Rogers offered 
the columns of the Herald 'for any authentic statement 
of the facts, but I think no statement by either side 
ever came. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 247 

Mr. Sargent spoke but briefly, though every word 
was to the point and the purpose, and on the question 
mainly for which the meeting had come together. On 
sitting down he expressed the hope that Mr. Rogers 
and myself might have a little time, late as it had 
become, Mr. Putnam having occupied quite two hours. 
But before either of us could speak, Mr. Putnam had 
to reply to Mr. Sargent ; though not with success, but 
quite otherwise, we thought. Next, the church mem- 
ber who had frequently spoken, or interrupted speak- 
ing, had to be heard at some length, he too having 
numerous minutes and documents to assist his mem- 
ory. Finally, the coast being clear, Mr. Rogers rose, 
evidently much to the satisfaction of a large part of 
the audience. He expressed his satisfaction at seeing 
so goodly a number present to hear for themselves. 
Anti-slavery he thought had been deprived of a fair 
hearing before the people, who had been greatly 
alarmed or hindered by the calumnies of the clergy 
and church. But he believed if the people could hear 
candidly and impartially, they would render a just 
verdict and the slave would have his liberty. He said 
the drift of Mr. Putnam's reasoning was to convict the 
old organized abolitionists of wickedly incumbering 
the anti-slavery cause with extraneous doctrines and 
demands. He denied the charge wholly and totally ; 
declared the old organized abolitionists had but one 
fundamental doctrine and demand, namely : that our 
slave-holding was a sin and a crime, and should be 
immediately and unconditionally abandoned. Whereas 
the new organization had many doctrines, such as 
sacredness of human governments, and church organ- 
izations, and their machinery ; sabbath, ministry, and 
the like, woman's inferiority, necessity of litigation, 



248 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

and many other things, and he proved all his positions 
by simply producing and reading the constitutions of 
both organizations. 

Mr. Rogers was asked if he had not changed his 
opinion respecting anti-slavery political action. He 
said frankly, he had, but becoming convinced that all 
legislation was force, and that as anti-slavery, in our 
opinion, was a strictly moral and religious movement, 
a work of repentance and reformation, we could not 
resort to physical force. He contended that without 
the life-taking power, or the power and right, usurped 
or assumed right, to enforce its decrees, government 
would be powerless ; a mere exhortation. * * 

That if slave-holding were forbidden by congress, it 
must be with penalties and power to enforce them at 
whatever cost, otherwise all such legislation must be 
null and void. If the penalty were resisted by force, 
it must be repelled by force to the extent, if need be, 
of cutting off the head of every offender by the sword. 
And so, to enforce a law, would be as the march of an 
army. Or if the penalty were not death, but only 
imprisonment, and the culprits refused to enter the 
dungeon doors, the sword of the marshal must enforce 
the penalty even at cost of life. Or if fine only be the 
penalty, it must be collected though at point of bayo- 
net or sword. If law be penal, it is capital ; and if 
not penal it is no law. " Finally," said Rogers, "legal 
abolition of slavery would be abolition at the point of 
the sword, and as decidedly military in spirit, and as 
far from being moral as would be an invasion of the 
slave plantations by an anti-slavery army." Mr. 
Rogers told the people no less frankly that as an 
abolitionist, he felt compelled to denounce the clergy 
as an anti-christian order, and the sectarian church 
organizations, as disowned by Christianity and forbid- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY AI'OSTI IS. 249 

den of Clod. They used their influence, lie said, in 
the name of Christianity, to crush out the anti-slavery 
enterprise. Had they not done that, we, as abolition- 
ists, should have let them alone. But in doing that, 
they proved themselves false to the christian name 
and all that it implies, and fidelity to the slave 
demanded that we unmask and expose them. Had 
they let the slave and his cause alone, the clergy 
might rule the people, and the people might bow to 
their authority, as to any other idolatry, and anti- 
slavery might never have molested them. * * 
Mr. Rogers had every ear, and it was a golden oppor- 
tunity well improved. It is impossible to convey any 
idea of the impression produced at that late hour of a 
winter's night, many having come several miles to 
attend the meeting. 

My own part in the discussion was of little account, 
and almost literally postponed to the eleventh hour. 
Our church-member opponent, in the plenitude of his 
charity, had declared he could even fellowship me as 
an abolitionist. When I rose, at the last moment, there 
was only time for me to decline the extended hand, in 
the name of, and for the sake of anti-slavery consist- 
ency, fidelity and moral integrity. In the first place, 
our friend was an abolitionist, tried and true, as was 
supposed. Then he apostatized into the new organi- 
zation and liberty party. Then he back-slid, or down- 
slid, into the whig party, and became a champion in 
the presidential canvass, 

" For Tippecanoe and Tyler too," 

until it was almost as hard to count him as it was the 
speckled pig of Uncle Peter. He said he could 
count them all, only that one ; but he jumped and 
flew around so, it was impossible to count him. The 

meeting adjourned in excellent humor, though my op- 

16 



250 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

ponent regretted that there was no time to reply to 
my illustration of the pig, which he declared was of 
the nature of a libel. And we were afterward in- 
formed that he deliberately contemplated a suit at 
law, to restore his offended dignity. But no such 
calamity ensued. 

We footed it briskly back under the bright moon 
to Mr. Emery's, the merry sleighbells of the farm- 
ers from remote hills and valleys swiftly passing us. 
A hasty cup of tea and accompaniments, while the 
boys put our Tunbridge in position from her warm 
stable, well prepared us for our hour's midnight ride, 
and we trotted gaily into our own street and yard just 
as the old Baptist church clock told the hour of 
twelve. 

Such, at that time, was new organized clerical anti- 
slavery. And the best of it. It is a sorrowful con- 
sideration, that nearly all the parties named in this 
narration have gone to the realm of departed spirits. 
A good reason why their words and works should be 
regarded with all the respect and charity possible. 
None doubted Mr. Putnam's hatred of slavery ; but, 
with his sect generally, especially its ministers, the 
church organization and its machinery were more 
than the liberty of the enslaved. Strange how priest 
and Levite are much the same in all time. And the 
" Good Samaritans," though often outlawed by state 
and church, are«ever foremost in rescuing the robbed 
and despoiled, the fallen and oppressed, from even 
the thraldom, civil and political as well as ecclesias- 
tical, of the church and clergy themselves. 

This work is Acts of tlie Anti-Slavery Apostles, not 
history of the anti-slavery enterprise. The present 
generation can know little of the labors and experi- 
ences of the years between 1831 and 1S61 ; nor can 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 25 I 

any better lessons be now given than by true descrip- 
tions, word pictures, taken on the spot, and by the 
actors in or witnesses of, the scenes and encounters. 
The following report of a Hillsborough county, New 
Hampshire, convention, is also by Mr. Rogers. He 
aided me immensely in conducting, he shall now aid 
me no less in reporting it to history and posterity. 
The world knows far too little of the editor of the 
Herald of Freedom. Part of the account, personal to 
this writer, is given with deep humility, and only at 
the earnest solicitation of his few surviving friends 
and fellow-laborers in the great conflict, whose will 
and wishes may well be his highest law. It is from 
the Herald of October 21st, 1842 : 

The Hancock Convention. — Another grand anti- 
slavery meeting has transpired. And truth enough 
has been told to revolutionize a nation, with either 
eyes to see or ears to hear, or hearts to understand. 
Our nation has neither. We can hope for little more 
than to prevent the coming on of another generation 
like the present. We may cripple the power of the 
slaves of the present age to disable the generation 
that is rising from discerning the truth. If we can, 
the coming generation may have sense and courage 
enough to perceive that slaveholding is not the quint- 
essence of righteousness. 

Six of us went over to the Hancock convention 
from Concord : Joseph and Mary Ann French, Parker 
Pillsbury, Stephen Foster and Caroline Farrand, and 
myself. A half day's ride through a most benighted 
region, embracing Reverend Moses Kimball's province 
of Hopkinton, whose only remnant of humanity that 
I know of is their tasty jail, the moral aspect of the 
whole way contrasting mournfully with the glorious 
upland country and a yellow autumn day, brought us 
to a couple of anti-slavery homes, on the Henniker 
highlands, George and Daniel Cogswell's. We were 
welcomed with a heartiness and cheer that fully made 
up for the utter blank which stretched all the way 



252 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

from there to Concord. 1 don't know of a single 
habitation in all that distance that would have given 
us a human reception, had they known us as we were, 
the mortal enemies of slavery, and pf its patrons, the 
priesthood. We left the river road, on the margin of 
the Contoocook, and wound our way among the hills 
to the southward of the beautiful village of Henniker. 
It brought us at length into a valley behind the high 
ridge that overlooks the village. We ascended to the 
summit, where stand the pleasant and comfortable 
dwellings of our two friends. Brother dwellings they 
are, near by each other as are the families, twin in 
affection as in kindred. 1 could hardly image to my- 
self a more desirable lociition. Remote, but not lonely, 
the two families, alone, affording each other abundant 
society. A glorious prospect stretches around them. 
Off to the south, beyond the deep, narrow valley, rose 
high, wooded hills, their heavy hard-wood growth 
touched gorgeously with the frost-pencil of October. 
North, the village, shining at their feet, with its 
painted dwellings and green fields, deformed only by 
a sectarian steeple or two and a kindred rum tavern, 
a wide upland country swelling beyond, rising in the 
distance and terminating with old Kearsarge, its bare 
head among the drifting clouds. 

After a most pleasant refreshment, bodily and men- 
tal, with our affectionate friends, (who have not yet 
cast off from their association their pro-slavery church 
corporation) we resumed our ride for Hancock, among 
some of the boldest inhabited scenery I have ever 
seen in New Hampshire. Bold and free as his own 
intrepid spirit, we passed the farm on which grew up, 
from four years old, our noble coadjutor and veteran 
fellow-laborer, Parker Pillsbury. The rugged moun- 
tain homestead where he was bred from early child- 
hood — bred to toil ; where he worked through all his 
young life, hard and faithfully as his manhood is labor- 
ing for the slave, with almost as little acknowledge- 
ment or thanks as the world then awarded him, when 
he developed obscurely among the rocks. We passed 
the solitary school house where he was allowed the 
few weeks schooling of his childhood. But thanks 



UTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 253 

they were so few. He was educating all the better 
for humanity's service on that rugged farm. He there 
taught himself to be a man. A great lesson he had 
effectually learned before he came in contact with 
seminaries and a priesthood. These proved unequal 
on that account, to over-match and cower down his 
homespun nobility of soul. They tied their fetters 
round his manly limbs, but he snapped them as Samson 
did the withes, and went out an abolitionist, carrying 
off the very theological gates with him upon his manly 
shoulders. He is away from home now ; gone on a 
campaign into Rhode Island, and I will have a word 
about him. It is due from me, and has long been. 

The abolitionists of the country ought to know 
Parker Pillsbury better than they do. I know him 
for all that is noble in soul, and powerful in talent and 
eloquence. The remote district school houses in New 
Hampshire and in the granite old county of Essex, 
Massachusetts, where he was born, would bear me 
witness to all I could say. He is one of the strong 
men of our age. I wish he oftener felt his own ' 
strength, if he ever feels it and would oftener put it 
forth, when he happens among the multitude audi- 
ences of the lowlands, where he is too apt to keep 
himself in the back ground. And the abolitionists, I 
fear, have regarded him too much as he regards him- 
self. He has overlooked himself, and they have over- 
looked him. He has undervalued his inestimable 
services, and the abolitionists have imitated him in it. 
He has gone unpaid — not that, it is not the word he 
would allow. Paid or unpaid are not the words for 
him, but unsustained, unsupported. He has broken 
down in two or three years by giant labor, a consti- 
tution of adamant, matured and hardened into iron 
in the school of his early toil. He has broken it down 
and what has he received in requital ? The curses of 
the priesthood and their vassal followers, and the for- 
getfulness of the abolitionists. He has been abroad 
in the fields, and they snugly at their homes ; he has 
performed the incessant labor of the galley slave, with 
little better than slaves' fare, often times, and hardly 
better than slaves' wages. He never complains, but 



254 ACTS OF ANTI-S] AVKKV APOSTLES. 

that is no sign that 1 should not. 1 have neglected 
to complain for him, as other abolitionists have given 
cause for the complaint. It is a shame that such a 
man as Parker Pillsbury should be unappreciated. I 
know the anti-slavejy cause is odious in the commun- 
ity ; I know its advocates are detested, but abolition- 
ists should not forget their field laborers. Pillsbury, 
and Foster, and Beach have served and suffered in 
this cause the last two years as hardly any of its cham- 
pions have suffered or served ; and their fidelity has 
had little other effect upon abolitionists than to cause 
them to shake their heads at their daring temerity. 
Instead of pouring into the breach made by them in 
the wall, abolitionists have, too many of them, halted 
and stood gazing to see how it would come out with 
them, amid the hosts of the enemy closing around 
them, or else absolutely discouraging their gallant ad- 
vance. So it is, and so it is always to be. 

But I must hasten on to Hancock. Hancock, a 
revolutionary name — named too for the bold signature 
at the head of the brave old Declaration, but the abode 
of a population anything but akin in spirit to revolu- 
tionary fathers. Contented colonists and vassals, 
most of them under the bloated tyranny of Archibald 
Burgess, and a subaltern aristocracy. We reached the 
dwelling of our friends, the Boutells, at nightfall, 
where we were at once at home amid all that is kind 
and comforting in anti-slavery hospitality. 

We learned that the old Orthodox meeting-house 
had been obtained for our meeting, it being so owned 
that the Very Reverend Father Burgess could not by 
his nod prevent our having it. He had also given 
notice of the convention from his pulpit on the Sab- 
bath before, and with all the ghostly importance of a 
haughty friar, had warned the church and congrega- 
tion not to attend it. He gave the very sensible and 
priestly reason that if they did attend, and the meet- 
ings were mobbed, it would be laid to them ! As honest 
and rational remark as commonly falls from a thick- 
headed priest. As if a mobbing could be laid to those 
who attended the meetings it was breaking up, and 
helped to bear the brunt and danger of it. The 
course of all others that would prove conclusively to 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 255 

the abolitionists that they were not countenancing the 
mob, so anybody but a soggy would perceive. And 
what did he talk about a mob for ? Had he used his 
influence to stir one up ? His minions, when spoken 
to about our having the house, said "Yes, if the aboli- 
tionist will be answerable for any damage done to it." 
As much as to say, " If you will pay for what mischief 
•we may do to it, you may have it." For who but they or 
their children would harm the house, or disturb the 
meetings ? The creatures of friend Archibald did stay 
away, but they sent their young fry to mob the con- 
vention, by ringing the bell, by uncouth pranks and 
brute noises, by hurling stones along the aisles and 
through the windows. We picked up two stones 
large enough to cause instant death had they struck 
any of us on the temple or other dangerous place. 
They were preserved and brought away as trophies of 
the education of the hopes of the church in Hancock, 
and of the godly preaching of the Reverend Archi- 
bald Burgess. He has preached there a good while. 
It was his sacerdotal pleasure that his old folks should 
stay away from the anti-slavery meeting, and that 
their nimbler offspring should go and do what in 
them lay to break it up. And so they did. The old 
ones staid away with commendable self denial. Many 
of them doubtless felt curious to go, but they had to 
deny themselves and stay away, and friend Archibald 
ought to commend them for it in the pulpit at the 
head of the regiment. Three days the meetings con- 
tinued, day times and the evenings of two days, in 
the midst of a thick settled, populous village, and the 
mass of the population had to stay at home ; and the 
meetings ten fold more interesting and more instruc- 
tive than any they had ever had among them of any 
kind. They would have thought so themselves if 
they could have been allowed to be there. But they 
were not. Archibald Burgess, their priest, admonished 
them to stay at home, and they did not dare to go. 
God admonished them by their consciences to go, but 
who was the Lord, that they should obey his voice ? 
Archibald Burgess was their Divinity, their fat Idol. 
They must worship him or he would frown at them 



256 Ml- "1 ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

from that awful pulpit, on that holy day, and, may be, 
pray against them, so that they would not have pros- 
pered " in their basket and store." 

The godly children of the church, rang that old 
liberty bell till they made it hoarse, and almost broke 
their young mobocratic backs with pulling the rope. 
It annoyed the village more than it did us, who were 
down under it in the house. We told them to ring on 
in welcome. It was a free meeting, and every one of 
them was at liberty to take what part in it he chose. 
If he had no ability to speak against anti slavery, he 
might ring the bell, or he might sneeze, or bark, or 
throw stones. There A\as one pro-slavery tailor in 
the entry that had sneezed with great ability. I never 
heard anybody that had such talent at sneezing. I 
remembered hearing him sneeze when we were there a 
year % ago. He sneezed out doors then, and he 
was heard all over the neighborhood. Mr. Burgess 
himself could not have sneezed like him, I don't be- 
lieve. He came into the meeting, and when any of 
the speakers touched on Mr. Burgess' connection with 
man-stealing, the tailor would sneeze in his defense. 
Others of his defenders would bark, some whistled, 
others scraped the floor with their hind feet ; one 
came in with a great club in his hand and marched up 
to the altar, and, with mock solemnity, took a seat be- 
fore it. The young mobocrats " laffed." The aboli- 
tionists took no notice of him nor them. He got sick 
of sitting there and marched out. Then they " laffed " 
out again. By and by he came in again and marched 
up into the pulpit. That was a killing manoeuvre. 
They did " laff " " like all possessed." We thought it 
was the very place for the poor fellow, and that he 
became it quite as well as their lubberly priest. He 
began to preach up there. Foster was speaking at 
the time, but gave way for him. He talked away and 
could not help saying some good things. One of the 
young religious gentry present interrupted him, for 
things did not seem to be working just right fur the 
opposition. Pillsbury requested that the speaker be 
not interrupted, and said he had spoken more im- 
portant truth, he would be bound to say, than had 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 257 

been spoken in that pulpit in two years, [t was so 

apt a remark, and, with all. so confounded true, that 
the whole mobocracy cheered it with a peal of applause. 
The)' could not help it. They forgot for the instant 
the errand they were sent on, and gave a volley of 
spontaneous and hearty cheers. After that they were 
glad for a while to be still. But Foster roused them 
again by his terrible invective. He displayed Burgess 
in such condemning light as one of the great brother- 
hood of thieves and patrons of robbery and adultery 
in the slave system, that they could not bear it, and 
began again to show their religious rage. Several 
large stones were hurled in at the front door, and 
went tumbling up the broad aisle to the foot of the 
pulpit. They were big enough to have broken the 
legs of anybody who might have stood there. By and 
by smash went the glass, and in at the side windows 
came the stones, glass rattling and stones bounding 
against the pew doors. Real clerical argumentation. 
Truly religious weapons of defense for the church and 
minister. 

This was in the evening. The academy students 
had poured in, in considerable numbers. There are 
two seminaries close by the meeting-house. A Con- 
gregational academy and a Baptist, where Baptist 
larnitj and orthodox larniri are severally taught. 
Dipped arithmetic and grammar at one, and sprinkled 
at the other. With whatever intent the students came 
in at first, the chief of them, after hearing awhile what 
was said and done on both sides, manfully moved into 
the center of the house, away from the mob at and 
near the doors, so as to separate themselves from it 
and identify themselves with the meeting. Some of 
them spoke and protested against the conduct of the 
mob, and behaved very honorably, and received the 
commendation of the convention. And I would here 
add that, if those young men were out from under 
this priestly control, they would most of them be 
abolitionists, and make free and noble men. And 
they will not be such slaves as their fathers. Their 
young breasts will inhale the reviving and disenthral- 
ing atmosphere our reform is generating around them, 



258 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

and it cannot fail to give them more or less of free- 
dom. Saturday morning there was hesitation about 
letting us have the key. It seemed to be feared that 
an impression was making in the meetings, dangerous 
to the church and the minister, although both staid 
away and kept most of the people away. Those 
young students would go in, and no knowing what 
effect it might have upon them. It was some time 
before the house could be got open, and shelter from 
a falling rain was obtained in sheds or where else it 
might be. No mobbing on Saturday, save ringing 
the bell. One young student ventured up into the 
pulpit, to show his "gimp." He had not witnessed 
the experiment there, probably, of the night before. 
The audience were reminded, in his hearing, of their 
entire freedom to say and do what they severally 
pleased, but on their own responsibilities. If they 
wanted to mount up into the pulpit, to play the fool, 
or for whatever purpose, it must be on their own ac- 
count. The convention would not be responsible. 
And if any of them wanted to play the buffoon, or 
mobocrat, the pulpit was a fit place to perform in as 
any other. Every one to his taste. Pro-slavery was 
very partial to the pulpit, and the pulpit was open to 
it on that occasion, as every other part of the house. 
They might whistle, or they might behave quietly 
and kindly, as they would be done by* They might 
speak, or they might bark and play the quadruped, or 
they might sneeze, as their champion had done the 
night before, or hurl stones through the windows, 
only it would all have to be done on their own ac- 
count, and not on ours. Several of the students did 
speak ; some, who seemed to be dieting for the minis- 
try, spoke cant and absurdity. One young man, 
Marshall, of Nashua, quite young, spoke very man- 
fully, and with candor and ability. If he follows out 
his heart, he will be an abolitionist and make an able 
advocate. A young Mr. Chamberlain canted and 
cavilled. He was a great friend of religion, and 
greatly wounded at our treatment of the virtuous and 
philanthropic folks, who, as we said, were instigating 
what their children had been doing to break up the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 259 

meeting, and who had kept the people from attend- 
ing it. Mr. Student Bonner was quite loud and vehe- 
ment in defence of "our church and clergy." He 
was not in favor of slavery, but he wanted the blacks 
sent to Africa if they were liberated. They did not 
belong to this country, and had no rights here. Stu- 
dent Bonner, by the way, belongs to Canada. He 
said they did not help carry on the revolution. 
He denied that liberty would do the slaves any 
good. He denied that slave-holding was man-steal- 
ing, or criminal. Foster had declared that it was ; 
Bonner rose and denied it. Foster bade the audience 
beware of that young man ; he would put the com- 
munity on its guard against him. He had denied 
that stealing children and enslaving them was sinful. 
That young man, he said, was dangerous in commun- 
ity with such notions. He bade those who had prop- 
erty exposed to beware of him. He had avowed the 
principles of a thief : the young fellow had been 
exceedingly impudent in his remarks upon the aboli- 
tionists, saying everything offensive and abusive, he 
well could ; specifying nothing, attempting to prove 
nothing, and well deserved Foster's severity. Whether 
there was any peculiar pertinency in the application 
of the word thief, more than Foster knew of, Bonner's 
acquaintances can say. Another young gentleman 
student was highly scandalized at "the abuse heaped 
on the clergy and Mr. Burgess." He was young, but 
could not refrain, when sacred things were thus 
attacked. Foster might speak here, he said, but if he 
were to go into yonder house, (where Burgess was to 
speak on Sunday,) he would be among those who 
would lay hold on him and drag him out. 

The students, however, behaved very well in the 
main ; some of them exceedingly well, considering 
the pro-slavery influence with which they stood con- 
nected. They did not talk with much good sense ; 
they spoke like students ; had they been free, unsoph- 
isticated youth, uninfected by the schools and the 
meeting-house, they would have gone en masse for 
the meeting, and borne a generous testimony in its 
favor. Pillsbury told them very impressively the 



260 \< IS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

obligations they were under to the meeting. It was 
at the first meeting, he admonished them, where their 
right of free speech had ever been recognized. They 
were called and reckoned boys, by other meetings of 
the day, and would not be allowed to speak on equal 
terms in any of them. Here they were not boys, but 
men. What would have been their reception, he 
asked, in an association of ministers, had they ven- 
tured to speak as they were free to speak here ? He 
asked them to appreciate it. He told them they were 
not boys ; they had rights and responsibilities ; and 
he warned them how they used them. That should 
be a memorable clay to them, he said, when in a con- 
vention of men and women, their equal right of free 
speech was for the first time recognized and asserted 
for them, even by those to whose objects they were 
not friendly. Asserted, not for this meeting only, but 
for all meetings of a public and proper character. He 
told them they had right to speak everywhere for 
themselves ; as good right as any number of years 
could ever confer upon them. He told them of the 
part they might act for God and humanity, if they 
would only use their talents and act up to their con- 
science and their convictions. 

Sunday was devoted to the Scriptural evidences of 
the sacred institutions. The clergy are wielding to 
overawe and put down the anti-slavery movement, 
the Sabbath, the clerical order, the dedicated temple 
and the meeting-house worship, to which anti-slavery 
as well as every other moral reform, is obliged to give 
way. All these were freely and faithfully discussed 
in the light of Christianity, and were all shown from 
abundant scriptural authority and evidence to be un- 
warranted by the gospel and forbidden by its great 
Teacher. If the people had been there and dared to 
hear impartially, enough was said to convince them 
all. Had the priesthood human ears and common 
mortal understanding, it would have saved them from 
their diabolical delusions to have been there and heard, 
if truth can save them. But the people were only few 
of them there. The clergy would not let them come. 
The clergy were not there. The two belonging to 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. j6i 

that neighborhood were absent. They did not dare 
to be there. They would as soon resign their licenses 
as meet the abolitionists in presence of the people on 
the meeting-house floor. 

Now, I appeal to the people if they themselves 
ought not to have attended the convention. Subjects 
of the utmost importance to them were those to be 
discussed, and in a perfectly free meeting. They had 
full and equal liberty to speak as well as to hear. 
Men and women were to discuss those subjects whom 
the community had no reason to doubt were compe- 
tent to a sensible and profitable examination of them. 
They ought to have been there. They would have 
been if they had been free. They would have been 
had they not been slaves. 

And the two clergymen ought to have been there. 
Burgess should have given notice of the meeting and 
exhorted the people to go and hear for themselves. 
If the meeting was free and open to reply as well as 
to abolitionist, and he knew it* would be, he surely 
should have been there himself, and advised others to 
be there. If we were propagating errors, he knew the 
place to put us down was in our own meetings. If 
we were wrong he was the man learned and faithful 
enough to put us all right. He would put us right 
for our sakes as well as for other people. Why not ? 
Suppose we did not reverence him. We complain of 
him that he wants reverence. Will he prove it by 
refraining to meet us because we won't render it to 
him ? He pretends to regard us as wolves, while he 
professes to be a shepherd. What is the duty of a 
shepherd when the wolf cometh ? To flee and hide 
himself ? " The hireling fleeth because," etc., but the 
true shepherd never. If we were wolves, Shepherd 
Burgess was afraid of us, If he is a wolf in sheep's 
clothing, he had good reason to fear us. 

But the clergy can't always keep us from the peo- 
ple. By the blessing of God, anti-slavery will yet 
deliver the people of this clergy. They may as well 
let us have a hearing first as last. They may as well 
meet us. They must meet us before the people, or 
the people shall at length know the reason why they 



262 VCTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

do not meet us. This skirmishing and dodging will not 
always avail them. A hand-to-hand conflict must by 
and by come, and under circumstances most unauspi- 
cious to the clergy. They will utterly dishonor and dis- 
credit themselves before the world by their behavior in 
avoiding the contest. We are right, and they shall 
meet us, or we will fall upon them at their very altars, 
and take hold of their horns as Benaiah did upon 
Joab. Foster and Beach, Brown and Allen, are al- 
ready scaling the walls of their sanctuaries. Others 
will follow. The pulpit is "coward's castle," but it is 
being stormed and it will be taken. If the clergy will 
hide there and by spells and sorcery prevent the peo- 
ple from hearing the cry of outraged humanity, its 
advocates will point their cannon at the sacred 
order, and never cease battering till it tumbles to 
the ground. 

Our convention terminated on Sunday afternoon, 
near night. There was throughout a goodly, but not 
full attendance. All the humanity of the place was 
there. There was a lack of attendance on the part 
of abolitionists from the surrounding region. Why 
are they not awake ? When liberty lies bound, lacer- 
ated and bleeding on southern plantations, and her 
advocates here in New England are imprisoned for 
pleading her deliverance, is it time to stay at home 
for ordinary cause ? Would they stay at home if a 
brother or sister or a wife were a slave, or if a hus- 
band were shut up in a loathsome cell at Newburyport, 
only for liberty of speech ? 

I must not forget in this hurried sketch, Foster's 
preaching at the threshold of Burgess' synagogue, on 
Sunday noon. He entered it in the forenoon, not to 
speak, but to appal, as I suppose, that haughty hire- 
ling by his presence. And it made him turn pale 
with coward apprehension. He feared Foster would 
open his mouth to speak. He knew he could oppose 
nothing to his powerful word but brute, ruffian, raga- 
muffin force. He trembled to be driven to it before 
his parish. Wicked man ! Why does he not give 
liberty of speech? Can he not defend himself? 
Foster is an able man, but I am not afraid of him 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 263 

where he is wrong. Why should the Reverend Mr. 

Burgess be ? Has he no |ongue to defend himself, 
and in the midst of his own people ? 

Foster spoke over half an hour, out on the com- 
mon before the synagogue, at intermission, and with 
great power. The people heard him. Burgess was 
within, like Putnam's wolf, but did not dare to come 
out. He must have heard Foster's voice, and prob- 
ably ordered the few that were with him to set up a 
tune, for they did, the cowards ! They did not dare 
to listen to the truth, so they sang a psalm. They 
were " not merry " and so they sang psalms. They 
were scared at the truth, and so they sang to drown 
it. Some of the leading subalterns of the priest at 
length returned from their home to the meeting. 
They were filled with rage when they came within 
sound of Foster's voice. They howled like very 
fiends. One of them, mighty well dressed and re- 
spectable looking, said : " The damned creatnre is 
crazv ; what is he here for? "If he is crazy," cried 
another, "he ought to be kicked off the ground." 
"Takeaway your minister," said one of the select 
men to our friend, David Wood, "or I will have aeon- 
stable here to take care of him." But Foster was on 
the common, and it was intermission time, to boot. 
" I do not keep a minister," replied our friend Wood. 
"Foster is his own minister, not mine." 

We had no officers in our convention, no president, 
no secretary, no business committee, no resolves passed. 
The question of president was fully discussed, and 
officers dispensed with unanimously. There was no 
vote of invitation to all persons present to participate. 
We were an open human meeting. We were met to 
promote humanity. And we declared everybody had, 
of course, a right to speak and act in our meeting, 
for it was everybody's meeting. Our harmony was 
perfect. Even the mobocracy was subdued and 
brought to order by the overpowering influence of 
liberty. 

The foregoing may seem to young readers a narra- 
tive too long drawn out. But it conveys only a faint 
idea of the scenes witnessed and encountered there. 



264 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

And not only there, but in hundreds of towns besides. 
And the mob spirit there manifested was mildness it- 
self compared with many other places east and west. 
When the clerical or political party leaders saw that 
we were determined the cause of the slave should 
be presented to the people, they felt safe in setting the 
mob on us at any time, knowing that we were non- 
resistants in every encounter. At Hancock, when the 
volley of stones came crashing in at the windows 
among the people, the women kept quiet, but a man 
cried out, " Let's adjourn ; let's adjourn." Happening 
to be speaking at the moment, I raised my voice so as 
to be heard in the confusion and asked ; Did your 
fathers adjourn at Bunker Hill when fired upon by the 
enemies of freedom ? The effect was as sudden as sat- 
isfactory, and the silence and order continued to the 
close of the session. The poor fellow with the shilalah 
in the pulpit had been drinking, but he rose and made 
a few very sensible remarks, rebuking severely the 
disturbers, which we applauded, and that rather won 
him to our side. I had often by strategy captured the 
champion of rioters whom they had crazed with liquor 
and put forward to annoy me so as to break up the 
meeting if possible. Sometimes I would invite him 
to a friendly discussion and take him 'to the platform 
and propose that I would speak half an hour and he 
take notes and reply as he saw might be needed. I 
would furnish paper and pencil and proceed. The 
plan would not always succeed ; neither did it always 
fail of the desired result. I well recollect such an oc- 
currence one terrible night in Vermont. The moon 
was bright as silver, but the mercury was much below 
zero. I should have held my man and 'the audience 
had not the rioters began pelting their champion at 
the table with paper pellets, tobacco quids and similar 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 265 

arguments, doubtless the best they had to offer. He 
soon kindled into rage against them, and I think 
would have died then in my defense had it been 
necessary. I was able to continue speaking in the 
confusion till the disturbing element was shamed into 
comparative silence, and then closed the meeting. 
This was unexpected, and some of the most violent 
begged me to proceed, promising the best of order 
and behavior to the end. But I declined, telling them 
I had captured their champion and proved him the 
most decent man of them all, and now they might 
have the responsibility of breaking up a free meeting 
where they would have been welcome to half the 
time. 

The Hancock convention had no presiding nor 
other officers, and so was a gathering after Mr. Rog- 
ers's own heart, as his graphic but eminently just and 
truthful description shows. 

While on Hillsborough county it may be opportune 
to report one more meeting held or attempted by Mr. 
Foster alone. It was in the town of Nashua, where 
anti-slavery never had rapid nor healthy growth. The 
people not coming to Mr. Foster he felt called on to 
go to them. It need not be told again that he differed 
at that time from most of his fellow christians in 
modes of worship. Fie believed devoutly that in all 
christian assemblies there should be freedom of utter- 
ance, whether by prayer, speaking, or song, as was 
both preached and practiced by Christ and the early 
apostles. But into whatever religious assembly he 
entered, his manner was always decent and respectful, 
and whether he spoke or prayed, his tones of voice 
were remarkably solemn and impressive. But I am 
sure he never once interrupted any religious services, 
except in places where political leaders and religious 



266 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

teachers had used all their influence and authority to 
keep the people from attending his meetings, which 
were always supereminently free. 

Mr. Foster's own account of the affair will best 
describe it, and as it was written in a prison into 
which his faithfulness brought him, it will be all the 
more interesting. A part only of his letter will here 
be given. It was dated, 

Amherst Jail, May 7, 1S42. 

My dear brother Rogers — Under the superin- 
tending providence of Him by whose permission, 
Joseph was cast into prison in Egypt, and the prophet 
Jeremiah wis incarcerated in a loathsome dungeon, 
and Jesus Christ scourged, spit upon, and nailed to 
the cross, I have been given up into the power of my 
enemies, arrested and confined within the walls of a 
loathsome cell. But though captured, I am not con- 
quered ; nay, I am a conquerer. My body is indeed 
incased in granite and iron, but I was never more free 
than at this moment ; I have at length triumphed 
over every foe ; I have achieved this victory by con- 
quering my own servile slavish fear of man, and all 
the instruments of torture and death, which his mali- 
cious passions have invented. * I 
was a slave. I am a slave no longer. My lips have 
been sealed by man. They will never be again, till 
sealed in death. My body is freely yielded to the 
persecutors to torture at pleasure. But my spirit must 
and shall be free. Equal, unrestricted liberty of 
speech at all times, and in all places, is my birthright. 
It is the gift of God to every member of the family of 
man, and I will defend it in the face of prison and of 
death. * * * You, brother Rogers, and 
the rest of my anti-slavery coadjutors may turn your 
backs upon our synagogues, or sit silent spectators of 
their hypocritical worship, while the dying wail of 
millions of your countrymen is borne to your ears on 
every southern breeze — if you can. I cannot. I will 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 267 

not. So long as the soil of America is polluted by the 
footprints of slavery, I will speak, in behalf of the 
victim, wherever I can reach a human ear. 

* * My countrymen are pirates. They 

legalize the sale and enslavement of their own " free 
and equal" brethren. They authorize their transpor- 
tation to distant ports to be sold into perpetual slavery. 
I scorn the friendship of such a people ; it is enmity 
against God. * * * My enemies never 

made greater blunder than when they sent me to this 
gloomv prison. It is an honor I did not expect ; one 
I feared I might never merit. 

As your readers may wish to know the circum- 
stances under which 1 came to this place, I will relate 
them, with such accuracy as can be done from mem- 
ory, though there is not time for detail. 

Last Saturday I visited Nashua, with the intention 
of giving a course of anti-slavery lectures, similar to 
those I have recently given at Dover, Exeter, and Som- 
ersworth. On my arrival, application was made for 
a house suitable to my purpose, but no such place 
could be obtained. The meeting-houses were refused, 
for no valid reason, except the UniversaHst, which 
was engaged for a course of scientific lectures. I 
called on Rev. D. D. Pratt, pastor of the Baptist 
church, and requested permission to address his con- 
gregation on the subject of slavery, the next day. 
Mr. Pratt refused my request, and remarked that he 
felt himself compelled to decide what was best for his 
people, and that he would send for me when he wanted 
my help. I then called on the Congregationalist min- 
isters, Mr. Richards and Mr. McGee, for similar pur- 
pose, but with no better success. 

On Saturday evening, I attended a meeting at Mr. 
Richards' vestry, and spoke twenty minutes or more 
to an attentive audience, most of whom I presumed 
were members of the church. On Sunday morning, 
after mature reflection and fervent prayer to God 
for divine guidance, I visited the Baptist meeting- 
house for the purpose of occupying some portion of 
the day in advocating the claims of that part of 
our countrymen who are held in slavery by the minis- 



268 ACTS OK ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

ters and members of the Baptist church. In doing 
so, I acted in good faith to the assembly I met. 
They said that place was the house of God, and I 
took them at their word and claimed in it the rights 
and privileges of a child of God. They said their as- 
sembly was a christian meeting, and I knew if it was, 
it would recognize and respect the equal right of all 
to speak, or "to prophesy one by one." They said 
Christ was their Lord and Master, and I knew if they 
were followers of his, I should be in no danger of be- 
ing thrust from their house. For when was it ever 
told of "the Prince of Peace " that he was seen run- 
ning out ot the synagogue with a Pharisee on his 
back? Or when did he privately instruct Deacon An- 
drew or Rev. Simon Peter to drag out the spies that 
he foreknew would come into the temple "to entangle 
him in his talk," feigning themselves iust men ? They 
said they were the sheep of Christ's flock, sent forth 
by their divine shepherd into the midst of wolves, of 
which I was one, and I knew if such were the fact, 
I was in no danger of being devoured by them, or 
dragged from their fold ; for when was it ever heard 
of sheep that they had devoured a wolf, or ferociously 
seized upon him and hurled him from their pen? 
They said Jesus had commanded them to "be wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves," and I knew if they 
followed such directions, they would look to God 
for protection, and not to a wicked Universalist ; and 
would seek to conquer their enemies by the power of 
love, and not by the terrors of the avenging sword. 
They claimed to be christians, and I knew that among 
such, it would be perfectly safe for me to give utter- 
ance to my sympathies for God's perishing poor. 

I rose for that purpose, but was immediately inter- 
rupted by Mr. Pratt, who said he wished to commence 
the regular exercises. I did not notice this interrup- 
tion, and was proceeding with mv remarks, when sud- 
denly Deacon Chase pounced upon my back and held 
me fast in his talons. We did not have a regular fight, 
like some which have recently disgraced the halls of 
congress, for the one only reason, that I declined a 
combat with the reverend ambassador of Christ and 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 269 

his devout deacon. I would not assert that Rev. Mr. 
Pratt would have fought in person, had I stood upon 
my rights. He might have thought that too undig- 
nified. He would doubtless have contented him- 
self with aiding and abetting the affray, by giving 
it his countenance and approval, as he did my subse- 
quent ejection from the house. After being dragged 
from the platform by the deacon, I was carried into 
the street by three or four men, whose names were not 
given. I inquired of the deacon, who still had me in 
his talons, if I was his prisoner. He replied that I 
was not, and let go his grasp. I then turned to go 
into the house, but was arrested by the deacon and 
his associates. A messenger was immediately dis- 
patched to the Universalist meeting-house, in search 
of one of those " ministers of God, who bear not the 
sword in vain." The messenger soon returned, ac- 
companied by Constable Gillis, by whom, with the as- 
sistance of Deacon Chase, I was pulled by the arms 
and collar a distance of fifteen rods or more, to a rum 
tavern, and thrown on the bar-room floor. Soon 
after, I was seized and dragged up two flights of stairs 
and thrown upon the floor of a small upper chamber, 
and subsequently delivered into the custody of two 
keepers. 

Having secured me in this temporary prison, the 
deacon returned to his meeting, to tender to the 
church the emblems of the body and blood of "the 
Prince of Peace." I was arrested, as the constable 
informed me, on complaint of Deacon Edwin Chase, 
Deacon David Philbrook, Norman Fuller, and another 
member of the church, whose name I have lost. 

During the afternoon. Brother Preble, a Free-will 
Baptist minister, came into my prison and asked the 
constable, who was then present, to accompany me to 
Thayer's hall, at five o'clock, to fulfill an appointment 
made for me at that place. This he declined doing, 
but said he would release me for that purpose, on con- 
dition that Brother Preble and certain others would 
be responsible for my return, provided he. could ob- 
tain consent of the complainants. Their consent to 
this was asked, but denied ! During the evening, one 



270 VCTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

of my keepers left. The other remained through the 
night, and slept with his clothes on, the door locked 
and the lamp burning. Indeed, 1 was as strictly 
guarded as though I had been a felon, waiting only an 
opportunity to escape. 

At ten o'clock, on Monday morning, I was put on 
trial before Israel Hunt. The complaint set forth 
that I had entered the Baptist meeting-house, "with 
force and arms," and disturbed the meeting by mak- 
ing a noise, by rude and indecent behavior, etc., etc. 
The principal witnesses against me were Rev. Dura D. 
Pratt, and Deacon Edwin Chase. As a precaution, 
Mr. Hunt required them to swear by the living God, 
that they would tell the truth, the whole truth and 
nothing but the truth, relative to the case under trial. 
But instead of so doing, both of them kept back a part 
of it, as did Annanias and Sapphira a part of their 
possessions, and, what was quite as unchristian, testi- 
fied to what was palpably false, and what I think they 
must have known was false. None present could fail 
to remark that their memory was all on one side. Mr. 
Pratt testified that I treated him " ungentlemanly." 
On being asked what I said or did that was ungentle- 
manly, he could not recollect, he said, then, but he was 
certain, very, that I treated him ungentlemanly. His 
answers to my questions on the point reminded me of 
the lines I have seen, but cannot now recall where : 

" I do not like thee, Dr. Fell ; 

The reason why I cannot tell ; 
But this I do know, very well, 
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell." 

So with the reverend gentleman. He knew full well 
that I treated him "ungentlemanly," but wherein 
he could not tell. But finally, being pressed on that 
point, he testified that I told him I would preach to 
his people whether he was willing or not. This, in 
his opinion, was ungentlemanly. Well, admitting 
that it would have been, it so happened that I did 
not say it, as brother Preble, who was present, will 
testify. But I did say to Mr. Pratt that I had come 
to Nashua to obtain a hearing in behalf of my en- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 27 1 

slaved countrymen, and that, if access to the public 
ear through the ordinary channels was denied me, I 
should seek a channel of my own. 

As I do not acknowledge allegiance to any human 
power, I made no defence. I asked the witnesses 
some questions, and said a few words, but they were 
designed to influence the audience present, rather 
than the decision of Mr. Hunt. In that, I felt no 
interest. My only object was to expose the wicked- 
ness and hypocrisy of Dura D. Pratt and the majority 
of his church, that they might no longer ensnare the 
ignorant and unwary. 

Mr. Hunt's sentence was, that I pay a fine of three 
dollars and costs of prosecution ; at the same time in- 
timating that a repetition of the offence would be fol- 
lowed by a much heavier penalty. I assured him I 
had done my duty in attempting to preach the gospel 
to the Baptists, and it was contrary to my sense of 
propriety to pay a fine for it. And I should, there- 
fore, refuse to do it. And, as to threat of augmented 
penalty for similar fidelity in future, I should not be 
at all intimidated by it. And so long as any portion 
of my countrymen were held in slavery, my voice 
would never be silent, till silent in death. 

Mr. Hunt then ordered me to be imprisoned till the 
fine was paid. 

At ten o'clock the next day this order was carried 
into effect, by my incarceration in this loathsome 
prison, where duty to God and my countrymen re- 
quires me to remain at present. Relief is kindly 
offered me from several sources, whenever I shall 
think proper to accept it. But I feel that the object 
is not yet accomplished that my heavenly Father had 
in view, in sending me to this dismal abode. And 
till that is done, I have no wish to be relieved. To 
one as restless as 1 am, imprisonment is oppressive. 
But I can endure it patiently for His sake who died 
for me. I can now surely " remember them that are 
in bonds, as bound with them." * * * * 
Bid my friends, one and all, be of good cheer. We 
shall triumph soon. My eye is already on the victory. 
You and I may be called to yield up our lives in the 



272 \r I S OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

final struggle. Be it so. I am ready. I have already 
passed the bitterness of death. My enemies have 
done their worst. I fear them no longer. Do not 
think me insane, that I write thus. I know in whom 
I have believed, and that a happier state awaits me 
when the toils of life are done. 

Your friend and brother, 

Stephen S. Foster. 
Brave hero ! But many did call him insane, even 
some of his best, truest friends. I remember once, 
in Faneuil Hall, at an anniversary, we had a discussion 
lasting all an afternoon and evening. Garrison, Rog- 
ers, Wendell Phillips, Charles Burleigh and Foster 
were, of course, all on one side. Rev. John Pierpont, 
Theodore Parker, Thomas Earle, of Philadelphia, 
David Lee Child, the gifted husband of the more 
gifted Lydia Maria Child, and probably others, were 
on the opposing side. The house was crowded in 
every part. Mr. Pierpont was speaking, and with 
quite his usual eloquence and power. I was sitting 
with Foster, clown in the body of the hall. Every ear 
seemed to be opened, every eye fixed on the speaker. 
Suddenly, Foster detected what proved a fatal moral 
flaw in the logic. Quietly he rose and addressed the 
chair: "Mr. President." Mr. Pierpont, always the 
perfect 'gentleman in every grace the word implies, 
and never more so than when in debate, ceased speak- 
ing and listened. Everybody listened. Foster re- 
sumed : " Mr. President, will our friend, Mr. Pier- 
pont, allow me to ask him a question just here?" 
"Certainly," was the ready response from the speaker, 
gracefully drawing back from the front of the plat- 
form. Foster then proposed his question. I do not 
remember it, but I well recollect that it lighted up 
the whole dark, deep chasm between moral rectitude 
and political expediency, showing Mr. Pierpont far 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. -'7,5 

over on the wrong side. All saw it, but none ap- 
plauded, though, in that vast throng, thousands must 
have approved. The stillness was almost overpower- 
ing. Mr. Pierpont broke it in a manner that at once 
engraved him on the tablets of my memory, and em- 
balmed him in my heart's affection forevermore. He 
spoke only this : " Mr. President, some folks say our 
friend Foster is crazy. But I wonder what this audi- 
ence think about it?" Only this, when a storm of 
applause burst forth almost rocking the old " Cradle 
of Liberty" to its foundations. Mr. Foster's triumph 
was complete ; but the graceful magnanimity of Mr. 
Pierpont I am sure entitled him to a kingly share in 
all the honors of that memorable scene. 

Mr. Foster, not without reason and propriety, closed 
his pathetic prison epistle with the appeal : " Think 
me not insane because I thus write." 

Insane ! Flad a like insanity pervaded a small part 
of the American church, pulpit and people, southern 
slavery would never have attained such proportions in 
the name of republican liberty and protestant chris- 
tian religion, as to demand the blood of half a million 
young men, brave and beautiful, to wash its guilt 
away. 

Insane ! Rogers did not deem him insane. Blaz- 
ing down two solid columns of the same page of the 
IlcralJ of Freedom with the letter, went his editorial 
comments, every word of which should be here repro- 
duced, in justice to martyr memory and the facts of 
history. On the jail itself he wrote : u It is provi- 
dential in Foster's behalf that Amherst jail stands so 
near Chestnut hills and anti-slavery Milford, so that 
the friends of humanity in those favored places can 
come to his relief and comfort in his otherwise soli- 
tary confinement. Those two localities abound in 



274 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVER\ APOSTLES. 

ministering spirits to the faithful prisoner. They have 
seen to the cleansing and purification, to some extent, 
of this loathsome receptacle of the victims of clerical 
and deaconish vengeance. They have expurgated 
Foster's department, I understand, of its vermin. The 
character of a people may be judged somewhat by its 
prisons, as well as its deacons and clergy. A savage 
people will support bloody minded incarcerating dea- 
cons and dragging-out clergy, and filthy, noisome, 
verminous cells, in which to shut up those whom it 
hates and fears." 

Referring to the justice who tried the cause and 
pronounced the sentence, he said : " The humane 
magistrate who played the part of Pilate in the matter, 
albeit he did not wash his hands as the profligate 
Roman did, fined Foster low, yet so high (three dol- 
lars) that he thought in his majestic soul that it would 
deter him from " speaking again in the synagogue, in 
this name." He expressed his trust, I understand, to 
that effect, when pronouncing his solemn sentence. I 
should love to have witnessed the look with which 
Stephen replied to that magnificent suggestion. Poor 
depository of a little brief authority ! He little appre- 
hended the character or the calling of the man he was 
dealing with. He might naturally enough suppose 
that one who had abandoned all the prospects of young 
ambition, a pulpit, a chance few young men of the 
time have had before them, (but for his christian in- 
tegrity) a reputation, which had he pursued it, would, 
ere this time, have crowned him thick with literary 
and ecclesiastical honors ; who had abandoned all and 
made himself "of no reputation," would now be driven 
back from the high and solemn duties for the sake of 
which he had done it all, by a three dollar fine ! It was 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOST] ES. 275 

an apprehension worthy the official dignitary who 
could mistake christian participation in a religious 
meeting for a legal disturbance of that meeting !" 

Mr. Rogers had some time before given his opinion 
of Mr. Foster's right to enter professedly christian 
assemblies, to plead the cause of the oppressed, in 
language to this effect: "Mr. Foster is the agent 
of the State Anti-Slavery Society, but takes his own 
way of performing the duties of his agency. How far 
the society would approve this new measure we can- 
not say. For ourselves, we cannot deny the Christian- 
ity of it, and we see not how the meetings he enters 
can, or how they can object to it consistently with 
their christian profession. They assume to be chris- 
tian assemblies, and to be governed by apostolic rules 
and usages. They would be scandalized to be desig- 
nated as any other than christian meetings. By those 
rules and usages, Foster has undoubted right to en- 
ter, uninvited, unpermitted, and be heard. They are 
congregational meetings to be sure, but they claim 
that Congregationalism is Christianity, in its most 
approved form, and has no other than New Testa- 
ment organization, principles and usages. As political 
assemblies, they may deny Foster's right. As worldly 
meetings, they may charge him with intrusion. As 
heathen meetings, they may complain and cannot be 
estopped by the plea that Foster comes in as a chris- 
tian, claiming under the usages of a christian assem- 
bly. The reply that they are a heathen and not a 
christian assembly would put him on a different de- 
fense. Whether it would be a defense in that case 
for him to say that, as a man he has a right, and is in 
duty bound to enter any human assembly and cry 
aloud in the paramount behalf of perishing humanity. 



2]b ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

whatever business might be going on there, is another 
question and need not be decided, so long as these 
meetings do not claim to be heathen." 

This, and much more, was written for and published 
in the Herald of Freedom of the first of October, 
1841, in connection with an account of the Hancock 
meeting of that year. 

Whether Mr. Foster was right or wrong in his 
course, was never considered by the clergy at all. 
They assumed that he was wrong, and with equal au- 
dacity, they assumed always that they were right in 
ordering him dragged out and sent to prison, or fined, 
or both, at the discretion of a civil magistrate. Thus 
they voluntarily placed themselves, as christian min- 
isters, under the protection of the sword of human, 
worldly authority, while claiming to be, while profes- 
sing to be, servants and disciples of the prophesied 
" Prince of Peace." Of him who said : "My king- 
dom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of 
this world, then would my servants fight. * * * 
But now is my kingdom not from hence." 

Nor should readers of these chronicles forget who 
was Mr. Foster, and what was his object in thus seek- 
ing the ear, the heart and conscience of the American 
churches and people, "whether they would hear or 
whether they would forbear." He was a christian 
teacher and minister, not then ordained, though he 
had thoroughly educated and qualified himself to oc- 
cupy any pulpit or professor's chair, in college or 
theological seminary. He knew profoundly the his- 
tory of the church and its ministry, from the calling 
of Moses and the Levites to, Samuel, the earliest 
prophet ; to Isaiah and Ezekiel, and onward to John 
the Baptist and Jesus Christ and his chosen and or- 
dained apostles. And when or where in all the Jew- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 277 

ish or christian scriptures was it ever read or known 
that the priests, prophets, or apostles, were to ask 
leave of the ungodly to preach unto them the doc- 
trines of repentance, reformation and righteousness ? 
Or when, or where, was it ever read or heard that such 
right, or even duty, was ever forbidden by any "rules 
or usages," still less, laws of divine appointment or 
approval, in any assembly, Jewish or christian ? 

Mr. Foster, like Mr. Garrison and Mr. Rogers, was 
a christian and christian minister and teacher, in all 
that those words of hallowed memory could ever be 
rightly made to mean. And to whom was he sent ? 
Or, if not sent, to whom did he come? To a nation 
of oppressors, the like of whom, under all the circum- 
stances, no age had ever seen, from the bondage of 
Israel in Egypt to the enslavement of Anglo Saxons 
by Norman invaders, whose deeds of manumission 
were sometimes recorded on the blank leaves of the 
parish Bible, kept in the church, secure from all inva- 
sion or violation as though sanctioned by a "thus 
saith the Lord," with the volume itself. Foster was 
himself part of a nation, (no unimportant part, as be- 
came apparent), that in the name of republicanism 
and Christianity, enslaved down to lowest brute-beast 
level, one-sixth part of its entire people. He found 
in his own nation, millions of human, immortal beings, 
without one marriage sanctioned by law, or sanctified 
by religion, among them all ! One-sixth part of the 
habitations of the people, houses of open, known 
prostitution, the holy rights, responsibilities and de- 
lights of parentage as utterly unknown, unrecognized, 
as among the beasts of the stable or the stall. Mil- 
lions of immortal, accountable human beings, and not 
one of them permitted to learn to read the name of 
the great creator, under pains and penalties, severe, 



278 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

sometimes almost, as for murder itself ! Millions of 
men, women and children, held accountable to human 
law, as well as divine, of whom a commission of the 
synods of South Carolina and Georgia, in the year 
of christian grace, 1833, declared, as with astonish- 
ment : " Who would credit it, that in these years of 
religious revival and benevolent effort, in this christian 
republic, there are over two millions of human beings 
in the condition of heathen, and, in some respects, 
in worse condition ! From long-continued and close 
observation, we believe that their moral and religious 
condition is such that they may justly be considered 
the heathen of this christian country, and will bear com- 
parison with heathen in any country in the world ! " 

Another writer in that same South Carolina synod, 
ou his own account, calls loudly for missionaries to 
those heathens, saying ; " I hazard the assertion that 
throughout the bounds of our synod, there are at least 
one hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same lan- 
guage with ourselves, who never heard of the 
plan of salvation by a redeemer ! " 

To such a people and nation did Stephen Foster 
come with his terrible words of warning, expostulation 
and rebuke. Saw Moses and Aaron any such abom- 
ination and outrage in Egypt ? But they asked no 
leave to enter the house of Pharaoh and confront the 
tyrant to his face ; demand immediate and uncon- 
ditional emancipation of every bondman in the land, 
and all his house hold ; and flocks and herds, as well. 
Isaiah asked no leave nor license to go to the house 
of Israel and Jacob, and show them their sins, and 
rebuke them for their vain fastings and solemn, 
religious mockeries, while refusing to " loose the 
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and 
let the captive go free," and break every yoke of 



\( IS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 279 

oppression and cruelty. His commission was, "Cry- 
aloud, and spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet!" 
And he obeyed ; and so did Jeremiah ; so did Eze- 
kiel. To be sure, they were persecuted ; were impris- 
oned ; some suffered death. But what then ? They 
were obeying what to them, was a divine command. 
"Go thou and speak my words unto them ; whether 
they will hear, or whether they will forbear ; for they 
are a rebellious house." * * "They will 

not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto 
me ; for all the house of Israel are impudent and 
hard-hearted." 

But can it be shown from any history, sacred or 
secular, that Hebrew prophet ever saw such oppression 
and cruelty as our slave-holders created and unblush- 
ingly confessed ! Or even paganism more dreadful 
than that which southern synods owned covered all 
their slaveland as with a funeral pall ? 

But the no less faithful prophet, Stephen Foster, saw 
it. He felt it. He felt that he was a part of it, till so 
far as it was possible, he had come out from it, sep- 
arated himself from it, religiously and politically, and 
consecrated himself and all that he had, all that he 
was, all that he could acquire, all that he could become, 
to the work of redeeming the slave, and rescuing his 
nation from the righteous wrath of that God before 
whom Jefferson declared he trembled when he remem- 
bered that He was just, and that His justice could not 
sleep forever ! 

Had not James G. Birney proved by his tract, of 
stunning power of argument, that "the American 
churches were the bulwarks of American slavery ; " 
and every witness furnished by the church and pulpit 
themselves ; and Judge Birney himself a ruling elder 
in the most powerful and popular denomination in 



280 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

all the south ? and so soon as he had washed his hands 
clean from all blood guiltiness in slave-holding, a man 
of most unblemished moral and social, as well as intel- 
lectual character, in this or any nation. And had not 
Foster demonstrated to the whole christian world, and 
out of their own mouths, too, that the American 
church and clergy were a great brotherhood of 
thieves ? A great brotherhood of thieves, taking 
them at their own word ; not producing a single wit- 
ness of his own, nor cross-questioning one of theirs ? 

Why should he not then enter the synagogues on 
the sabbath day, with greater boldness than ever did 
Jesus the synagogues of Judea, or the temple at Jeru- 
salem ? enter them, though every New Hampshire hill 
had been a Calvary, and every tree a cross ! Who 
was Mr. Justice Hunt of Nashua, with his stupendous 
three dollar fine, or the deacons of Reverend Dura D. 
Pratt, or his reverence himself, with Amherst jail and 
a constable drafted from Nashua Universalist church 
to drag him away to it, who, or what were all these to 
the soul and spirit of one who had heard and heeded 
the voice of Him who said; "I do send thee to a 
people impudent and hard-hearted, who will not 
hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me. 
Nevertheless, go and speak my word unto them, and 
it shall be known that there hath been a prophet 
among them, whether they will hear, or whether they 
will forbear ! " 

But this account may be extended too far. Inclos- 
ing it, probably it may be as a leave taking from my ever 
to be revered friend and companion in arms in our 
moral but fearful conflict for the rights of humanity. 
Incidentally his name may appear again in these pages, 
but that will be all their limits allow. The close shall 
also be in his own words, appropriate climax to his letter 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. " 2SI 

from the jail. Under date of Canterbury, January 
15, 1S42, he wrote to the Herald of Freedom a letter 
from which the following are extracts. It will be ob- 
served that he had almost twenty years yet before him 
of fearful encounter, with the no less faithful com- 
panionship, who with him endured to the end of the 
anti-slavery strife : 

Dear Rogers — I designed to be with you in Con- 
cord to-day, to commence a course of anti-slavery 
lectures, but, as you see, I am not there, and for the 
very worst of reasons. I am disarmed if not con- 
quered by the enemy. My voice for all practicable 
purposes is gone. Since the wet weather came on, 
the inflammation on my lungs has returned with other 
symptoms of unfavorable character than those of the 
original attack. * * * I am now laid on the shelf 
for the present, perhaps for the winter. Possibly for 
even a longer period. Indeed, when I dare look 
on my shattered form, I sometimes think prisons will 
be needed for me but little longer. * * Within 
the last fifteen months four times have they opened 
their dismal cells for my reception. Twenty-four 
times have my countrymen dragged me from their 
temples of worship, and twice have they thrown me 
with great violence from the second story of their 
buildings, careless of consequences. Once in a Bap- 
tist meeting-house they gave me an evangelical kick 
in the side, which left me for weeks an invalid. Times 
out of memory have they broken up my meetings with 
violence, and hunted me with brick-bats and bad eggs. 
Once they indicted me for assault and battery ; I 
think it was on that notorious band of kidnappers, the 
Boston police and their abettors, the judges of the 
supreme court. Once in the name of outraged law 
and justice have they attempted to put me in irons. 



282 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Twice have they punished me with fine for preaching 
the gospel ; and once in a mob of two thousand 
people have they deliberately attempted to murder me, 
and were only foiled in their designs after inflicting 
some twenty blows on my head, face and neck, by the 
heroism of a brave and noble woman. To name her 
in this besotted age would be to cast pearls before 
swine ; but her name shall be known in other worlds. 
* * Still I will not complain, though death 
should be found close on my track. My lot is easy 
compared with that of those for whom I labor. I can 
endure the prison, but save me from the plantation /" 
Space permits no more. This whole letter is worthy 
a place by the side of the most pathetic strains in the 
epistles of the great apostle to the Gentiles. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MARTYR PERIOD — IMPRISONMENT OF ALLEN, 
BROWN, BEACH, HARRIMAN AND FOSTER. 

Two British women wrote each a work on American 
slavery, of similar character. One was entitled " The 
Martyr Age," by Harriet Martineau ; the other, by 
Eliza Wigham, was " The Anti-slavery Cause in Amer- 
ica, and its Martyrs." Both were highly interesting 
and valuable but neither could treat of the later per- 
secutions and imprisonment of Eoster and others, for 
their heroic determination to bring the cause of the 
enslaved to the doors and altars of the sanctuary. A 
dozen years before, Garrison had appealed to the pul- 
pit, beginning with his own minister, Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, then of Boston. But his appeal was worse 
than in vain. " I have already too many irons in the 
fire," responded the reverend doctor. But Garrison 
said, seriously : " You had better let all your irons 
burn up, than neglect your duty to the slave." " I am 
a colonizationist," said the doctor; "your zeal is 
commendable, but misguided. Give up your fanati- 
cal notions about immediate emancipation, and be 
guided by us (meaning the clergy), and we will make 
you the Wilberforce of America." And so said nearly 
all the leading clergy of the north ; Congregational, 
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Unita- 
rian, all alike. The exceptions, such as were worthy 
the distinction, were soon proscribed as " Garriso- 
nians," name then below every name. And there 
seemed a settled determination that the people should 



284 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

not hear the abolitionists, nor know of their doctrines, 
nor of their own duties and obligations to the slaves. 
Many proofs of this have already been adduced ; but 
many more are soon to appear. Another " Martyr 
Age " was demanded to expose and overturn the 
power and reign of a pulpit thus given over to work 
iniquity and practice such oppression and cruelty, in 
the very name of him who came preaching " deliver- 
ance to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
doors to them that were bound." New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts were not worse than other states, 
but in them were many of the fiercest encounters; in 
them was this spiritual wickedness in high places most 
fearfully revealed to the gaze and astonishment of 
mankind. 

Take the following excerpts from one Pastoral Cir- 
cular, issued by the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
Baptist association, headed, "To the churches com- 
posing the Portsmouth association — grace, mercy and 
peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus, our 
Lord :" 

" There are indications that we are on the eve of 
a moral and religious revolution." This was in the 
autumn of 1S42, and the dreaded "revolution" was 
indeed upon them, in the new and increased faithful- 
ness of some, at least, of the anti-slavery apostles in 
breaking down the barriers a wicked and cruel clergy 
had raised between them and the people, as well with- 
out as within the churches. With subtle cunning and 
real Jesuitry they concealed in their Circular (wishing 
" grace, mercy and peace"), the names, not only of 
persons, but of principles and objects they meant to 
oppose, and talked about important schemes of moral 
and philanthropic name under direction of those who 
have little or no sympathy for pure Christianity ; in 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. ■ 285 

one breath denouncing the ministry, and in the next 
calling for its influence to be manifested in support of 
their favorite measures for doing good. * * * 
* * " Making it difficult to counteract their in- 
fluence in many cases, because of the goodness of 
the*cause in which they profess to be engaged." 

With verbiage vague as this, the Circular pro- 
ceeded at much length to caricature the faithful labor- 
ers in the lecturing field, as well as editors and 
others, and warning their disciples against presuming 
on the dignity and authority of those who claim to 
be set over them in the Lord, in strain like this : 

Let the churches, directly or indirectly, rule the 
ministers, let them lose confidence in their religious 
teachers, as men who merely consult their own per- 
sonal views and ends, without inquiring what truth 
and faithfulness to the souls of the people demand 
at their hands ; let the ministry, by any effort of the 
church, or of the enemies of God, become despised 
in the eyes of the world, and the chief instrumentality 
of heaven's appointment for rearing up the kingdom 
of Christ on earth is gone. 

But the following single paragraph is quite sufficient, 
for all present purposes : 

We are also aware that the ministry itself is charge- 
able, to no little degree, with bringing about such a 
state of things as we herein deplore. May be they 
have thought, by placing themselves more on a seem- 
ing level with their fellow-citizens, by mingling in 
their debating clubs, and joining with them in their 
efforts to bring about certain moral improvements, 
that in this way they would get a nearer access to 
them with the gospel ; but we think that by pursuing 
such a policy, they have unavoidably lost that reverence 
which the people must have for their ministers, over that 
which they cherish for other men, and lost also the end 
which they thought to gain, by taking such steps. 
Nor is this all. Ministers have not been sufficiently 
respectful and decent in their intercourse toward each 



286 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

other, and the world and the church have seen it, and 
taken undue liberties from it. Hence, the ministry 
has plunged a dagger at its own vitals ; and now, as 
long as they continue to disrespect and accuse each 
other, they must not be surprised if they are dises- 
teemed by others. Let them begin the work of reform- 
ation among themselves, and let them so demean 
themselves that the robes of their office shall be held in 
future by all, as sacred and inviolable. 

Abolitionists soon learned what that "seeming 
level," and " mingling in debating clubs," meant, with- 
out being told by the clergy themselves. In this case 
they were super-ingenuous. 

But Connecticut and Massachusetts were even more 
definite and authoritative, speaking through Congre- 
gational associations in state councils assembled ; and 
enacted what doubtless to this day is the law of the 
whole Congregational and Presbyterian church, not 
only of those states, but of the whole land : 

Resolved, That the operations of itinerant agents 
and lecturers, attempting to enlighten the churches in 
respect to particular points of christian doctrine and 
christian morals, and to control the religious senti- 
ment of the community on topics which fall most ap- 
propriately within the sphere of pastoral instruction 
and pastoral discretion as to time and manner, with- 
out the advice and consent of the pastors -and regular 
ecclesiastical bodies, are an unauthorised interference 
with the rights, duties and discretion of the stated 
ministry — dangerous to the influence of the pastoral 
office, and fatal to the peace and good order of the 
churches. 

The pastoral letter of the Congregational association 
of Massachusetts, at the same time, contained mandates 
like these : 

We would call your attention to the importance of 
maintaining that respect and deference to the pastoral 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 287 

office, which is enjoined in scripture, and which is es- 
sential to the best influence of the ministry on you 
and your children. 

One way in which this respect has been in some 
cases violated, is in encouraging lecturers or preach- 
ers on certain topics of reform to present their sub- 
jects within the parochial limits of settled pastors 
without their consent. (!) 

Your minister is ordained of God to be your teacher, 
and is commanded to feed that flock over which the 
Holy Ghost hath made him overseer. If there are 
certain topics upon which he does not preach with 
the frequency or in the manner that would please you, 
it is a violation of sacred and important rights to en- 
courage a stranger to present them. Deference and 
subordination are essential to the happiness of society, 
and peculiarly so in the relation of a people to their 
pastor. Let them despise or slight him and he ceases 
to do them good, and they cease to respect those 
things of which he is at once the minister and the 
symbol. There is great solemnity in these words : 
" Obey them that have the rule over you and submit 
yourselves." 

And Vermont Congregationalism through its State 
Domestic Missionary Society, in 1841, spoke officially 
to this effect : 

The ministers are the heads of the churches; the 
leaders in the sacramental host of God's elect. No 
measure can be carried without them, and much less 
in opposition to them. And scarcely any proper mea- 
sure can fail to succeed when the ministry put forth 
their power. In view of this fact it is asked with utmost 
earnestness, ought they not, and in view of their ob- 
ligations, and of the glorious results sought, will they 
not come up to this work and lead on the churches ? 
The churches can be reached in no other way. No 
man can approach a church when the pastor inter- 
poses. He cannot, and he may not if he can. To give 
Vermont to Christ, this is the peculiar work of the 
church of Vermont. 



288 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

And as spoke Vermont in these few utterances, so* 
spoke, practically, the entire church of New England 
and of the north, of every denomination, not even the 
Quakers excepted. 

What now was the duty of every faithful anti-slavery 
man and woman ? 

The ministers were the heads of the churches ; the 
leaders of the sacramental host. No measure could 
be carried without them, No measure could fail to 
succeed when they put forth their power. No man 
could approach a church when the pastor interposed. 
" He cannot, and he may not if he can" was the dread 
declaration. Here now was the situation. The Ports- 
mouth association had issued their Encyclical for the 
double purpose of blasting the name and reputation 
of the abolitionists to save not only themselves per- 
sonally, in their pro-slavery infamy, but the clerical 
order, which they dishonored by their character and 
conduct. 

Massachusetts and Connecticut had spoken a little 
before Vermont, but substantially to the same fearful 
effect. And New Hampshire had already begun the 
execution of the same spiritual decrees, and found the 
state ready, willing and waiting with its courts, con- 
stables, county houses and jails, to open up the new 
Spanish inquisition with all its terrors and tortures. 

And the new organization, led largely, almost 
wholly, by ministers, endangered the good name of 
anti-slavery, though happily only for a short time, for 
soon most of the new organized type of anti-slavery 
sunk to a political party, pledged to support slavery 
in the states as then existing, including the right to 
recapture fugitive slaves, only resisting its extension 
by congress into new territory. That, and to traduce 
and villi f y faithful, uncompromising abolitionists, and 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 289 

to apologize for slave-holders, and to defend their 
right not only to the christian name at home, but to 
recognition and fellowship as christians and christian 
ministers at the north, was an important part of the 
work of most of the leading clergy, bishops and doc- 
tors of divinity included, in every evangelical demom- 
ination in the country, whether holding slavery as 
sacred or professing anti-slavery. Religious news- 
papers in all the evangelical sects furnished the evi- 
dence of this every month if not every week in the 
year. Reports and resolutions of the proceedings of 
all the national missionary, Bible and tract societies 
often abounded with such evidence. General assem- 
blies, Presbyterian ; general conferences, Methodist ; 
association and consociation of the Congregational 
churches all testified to the same terrible truth ; and 
though the Methodist general conference was rent in 
twain by the angry agitation, there never was an hour 
while slavery lasted when the northern conference did 
not hold in its communion thousands of slave-holders, 
with their tens of thousands of slaves ! Their annual 
conferences extended clear down to Arkansas, Texas 
and New Mexico, according to their own Book of Dis- 
cipline, published so late as the year i860, and now 
lying on my table. Not that there were not many 
good anti-slavery men and women in the churches, 
but how could they be reached ? Stephen Foster 
found a way. I had spent most of the summer of 1841 
in my native Massachusetts, but when about to return 
to New Hampshire I addressed Foster a letter as to 
our future course of action, containing these few T 
periods : 

Dear Stephen Foster — Perhaps my duty has been 
neglected in not writing to you in my absence from 
our field of labor. I will now endeavor to make some 



290 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

amends, though I have not much to communicate. To 
soldiers like you and me, recitals of sieges, sorties, or 
battles are not interesting, unless rich in strange 
incident, fearful encounter, terrible suffering, hair- 
breadth escape, or wondrous victories. So I do not 
think much need be said of my work in the old Bay 
state, beyond what you may have read in the news- 
papers. 

Still, what I have witnessed and experienced in 
Essex, Plymouth and Bristol counties makes me re- 
luctant to leave the state just now, but I must come 
to New Hampshire. Brother Stephen, the granite 
rocks must echo us there in the coming months, and 
the hills reply as we sound through the state the doc- 
trines of universal freedom to the whole brotherhood 
of man. They call you and me " dangerous men." 
We must show ourselves such. 

Devise some plan, if you can, by which we may greatly 
improve on the operations of the past. 

If we scourged a pro-slavery clergy and church 
with whips last year, let us this year lay on with scor- 
pions. Let us make every hold of spiritual tyranny 
send up its death shriek as we flash down into it the 
lightning of eternal truth, and roll its thunders among 
its darkest, deepest caverns. Let us write Tekcl over 
every pro-slavery pulpit in characters of flaming fire, 
until the knees of every reverend Belshazzar who sits 
enthroned on it shall smite together. 

Armed with the truth we shall be omnipotent ; and 
the hour has come. The groans of our three million 
bondmen have pierced the heavens, and the arm of 
the Almighty is made bare as of old, for deliverance. 
With faith we may be as Moses and Joshua, in hasten- 
ing its coming, and God helping us we will be. We 
are prepared to be scandalized as infidels, and reviled 



ACTS OB" ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 291 

as the enemies of man and God. To the popular, 
prevailing religion we are infidels, and mean to be. 
Woe to such as are not ! The pulpit of our land saith 
in its heart, "There is no God." It is corrupt. It 
has done abominable wickedness ; and so has the 
church, which is its own handiwork. * * 

* * Our religious institutions have made 

themselves the body guard of slavery. We cannot 
come at the monster but through them. Let us not 
mistake ; a pro-slavery religion must be hunted out 
of the land ; too long has it cursed the earth. It has 
delighted in blood and tears ; it has fattened on 
human misery. It has extorted groans and wailings 
from countless victims, but its own hour has come ! " 

This letter accomplished mightier results than could 
have been anticipated. In exactly one month from 
the day of writing it, the answer to the desire that he 
should devise some new method by which we could 
greatly improve on our past, was more than fore- 
shadowed in his heroic and masterly entrance into the 
Concord North Church, and rising with all the dig- 
nity and devotion of an inspired and commissioned 
prophet of God, demanded to be heard at the hour of 
sermon, in behalf of the millions in our republican 
and christian nation who were grinding in the prison- 
house of cheerless, hopeless and interminable bondage. 
Of course he was denied, and violently, savagely 
thrust out of the synagogue. 

But the end was not then nor there ; the beneficent 
results of the brave act shall never end. In that hour, 
Foster might have beheld clerical usurpation and dom- 
ination, so lately, so audaciously asserted in New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, 



292 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

and exercised in other states, falling like " Lucifer, 
son of the morning," from heaven ! falling to rise no 
more ! 

For his sublime example soon began to be imitated 
elsewhere, and a martyr period, all unexpected, burst 
upon us. Satan seemed to come down in great wrath, 
as if seeing that his time was short. This generation 
knows little of the trials experienced by the faithful 
abolitionists in those times that tried men's souls, and 
the souls of women as well. Indeed, this generation 
seems to know little of what slavery was, any more 
than what was genuine, uncompromising anti-slavery. 
The first to follow in the steps of Mr. Foster in his 
new movement, were two plain, honest, but earnest 
working men, mechanics in Littleton, by the White 
Mountains. Their names were Nathaniel Allen and 
Erastus Brown. Both were heard, but subsequently 
arrested, tried and consigned as felons, to Haverhill 
jail. Readers of these pages have heard of that grim 
bastile before ; and of Nat. Allen and his gift of a new 
harness to the anti-slavery cause. The principal vil- 
lage lawyer, Mr. Carlton, volunteered his services in 
their behalf ; the sympathies of the community were 
greatly enlisted in their favor. Both men were uni- 
versally respected and esteemed ; they were radical 
temperance men, and non-resistants ; had no foes out- 
side the church, and were both model husbands and 
fathers, as well as kind neighbors and faithful friends. 
But they endeavored to " remember them that were 
in bonds, as bound with them," and the church and 
ministry waxed exceeding wroth against them. They 
sought to do unto others, especially their enslaved 
fellow beings, as they would have others do unto them, 
and the church and pastor haled them to prison; their 
wives and children weeping aloud as they left their 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 293 

liomes. Perhaps the church and pastor thought, ver- 
ily, that they were doing God service; at any rate, 
away many miles, to prison, they sent them. 

And while in confinement, they wrote me letters, 
worthy the persecuted saints of other times ; by 
Nero, Torquemada and the Inquisition. These pages 
are hardly worthy a few brief excerpts of their con- 
tents. Allen wrote : " We were brought here at the 
instigation of the church and minister, Mr. Worcester, 
who, as you will recollect, publicly admonished his 
people that "this speaking must be stopped.'" But 1 
complain not ; I am better off than those for whom I 
plead. I am happy here, and think I may be, in 
whatever situation my enemies may place me. We 
were arrested on the sixteenth of August ; our trial 
was quite interesting ; some of our citizens spoke very 
feelingly in our behalf. The people of Littleton out- 
side the church, and a portion of the aristocracy, think 
it was the most disgraceful prosecution that was ever 
enacted in the town. My wife and children feel badly 
to have me here, but I suppose the church thought it 
would be for the glory of God. * * I trust 

it will result in good ; and I forgive and pray God to 
forgive the church and all who sent us here." 

In another letter he writes : " If we had but some 
clean straw and a block of wood for our heads, it 
would add very much to our comfort. But I will find 
no fault. I was never more happy in mind than at 
present. Tell our friends, especially those whom our 
absence most affects, that our situation is rather 
pleasant than otherwise." 

To Mrs. Allen he wrote : " True, our situation, 
filthy and over-run with vermin though it be, is more 
tolerable than I expected, so give yourself no un- 
necessary anxiety on my account. I am comfortable 



294 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

and contented. More than that, I am unusually 
happy, and believe I shall continue so, however long 
I may remain here." 

Mr. Brown wrote under date, 

Haverhill Jail, August 30, 1842. 

Brother Pillsbury — I greet you through the 
bolted doors and grated windows of Grafton county 
jail. * * Brother Allen and myself are con- 
fined here for the crime of opening our mouths for 
the dumb and suffering of our common humanity, un- 
bidden by any except our Savior. I am filled with 
strange emotions when finding myself, for the first 
time in my life, incarcerated within prison walls. A 
favored opportunity for remembering them that are in 
bonds. * * I cast my eyes around, and con- 
trast the dismal aspect of my half-lighted, barred and 
bolted cell (where, as I am assured, deeds of darkness 
have been indeed done, for two men were murdered, 
we are told, in this room, by a third named Burnham, 
all three confined only for debt,) with the inimitable 
beauties spread out in the vast expanse between us 
and the setting sun, now darting his last rays far up 
a cloudless sky ; though I do not feel like saying much 
about myself nor of my situation when I think of the 
poor, wretched victims of hate or jealousy who have 
suffered, or are now suffering, within these filthy dun- 
geons, treatment which should mantle with the blush 
of shame any human face that witnesses it inflicted 
even on a brute beast. * * We are in a cell 
with a young man who tells us he has been confined 
more than a year on charge of theft, of which he de- 
clares he is innocent, and I believe he is. He has 
been in this cell four months, and says it is a heaven 
compared with the loathsome den underneath where 
he lingered eight months ! He was only removed 
from it on account of declining health. It is sad to 
hear the low, murmuring sound of human voices from 
distant cells, as they occasionally come up to our 
room-mate through a small hole in the huge barred 
and bolted door or grated window, through which the 
scarcely audible voices can be heard as if in supplica- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 295 

tion from the lower world ! * * I regret our 
confinement, not so much for ourselves as on account 
of the inconvenience, anxiety and privation it causes 
our families, who need our presence and assistance, 
and the remorse it must yet cause our accusers and 
those who stood by them when they sent us here. 
Walking my cell in silence, and contemplating the 
various pains and penalties which professed christians 
have inflicted on their fellow beings, {for the glory of 
God, we must suppose,) and the cruel privations and 
sufferings endured by the body for the good of the son/, 
I am led to exclaim : "Is this, then, the, religion of 
Jesus Christ ? Is this the doctrine of Him who came 
to teach forgiveness of injuries — the love of enemies? 
Is this what He meant by undoing heavy burdens, 
and opening the prison doors of them who were 
bound ? and when He said, ' If ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father for- 
give yours?'" Each morning I rise from my pallet 
of straw, or rather of chaff and vermin, with the very 
kindest feelings toward my persecutors, and unabated 
zeal in behalf of the slaves ; and I remain your friend, 
as ever, Erastus Brown. 

These few periods, from letters of Allen and Brown, 
show what manner of spirit they were of, and what 
was their condition while in prison as to body and 
spirit. It is most remarkably true that persons sent 
innocently to prison, as were these two brave men, 
always become deeply interested in their fellow-pris- 
oners, whether guilty of crime or otherwise. It is not 
strange, then, that my friend Brown, one of the truest, 
bravest, most humane men who ever lived, should 
deeply sympathize with the young man, whether inno- 
cent or otherwise, who had already suffered the pains 
and pangs of a dozen ordinary deaths, before guilt 
had been proved or innocence admitted. And many 
called Brown insane. Some of his accusers deemed it 
charitable to think or say that he was not in his right 
mind when he persisted in opening his mouth for the 



296 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

dumb, and for him who had no friend nor defense in 
the Sunday assemblies of his oppressors and en- 
slavers. Doubtless, many said, " He hath a devil, and 
is mad," and so they shut him in jail, knowing well 
the kind of cells they kept for the heinous crime of in- 
sanity .' I felt at the time that Allen and Brown were 
the sanest men in Littleton, unless their counsel, Mr. 
Carlton, was an exception. Both men have been dead 
many years, but they saw the death-blow given to 
slavery, and.departed universally respected and deeply 
lamented by their families and friends. Their con- 
finement lasted but sixteen days ; though their re- 
lease, like that of Jeremiah, the Hebrew prophet, was 
by the civil, not the ecclesiastical, authority. 

But the powers that ruled in the church, mistook 
entirely the character of the abolitionists. Had they 
shown themselves and their discipleship to be follow- 
ers of him who came "preaching deliverence to the 
captive, undoing the heavy burdens and letting the 
oppressed go free," and breaking yokes, instead of 
laying them mercilessly on the shoulders of men and 
of women, and on their children after them, in succes- 
sive generations, there need have been no other aboli- 
tionists, no other emancipation. In one word, had 
the church and ministry been, in any true sense, an 
anti-slavery, a temperance, and a peace society, there 
never would have been any other, nor need of any 
other, nor room for any other. 

But the church was neither of these, and so those 
associations had to appear, to save even the church 
and pulpit themselves from the guilt of all these evils. 
And the first and sternest work of the abolitionists 
was to loose the bands of wickedness in the church, 
especially such as prevented approach to the people 
with the claims of the enslaved millions in our own 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 297 

boasted republican and christian land. That one 
fact proved the truth and justice of Judge Birney's 
tract, " The American Churches the Bulwarks of 
American Slavery." 

The government had decreed slavery, including the 
right of the slaveholder to call on the whole north to 
defend him against slave insurrection, and to aid him 
in recapturing his fugitive slaves, who might take 
shelter under any friendly roof ; with heavy pains and 
penalties for attempting to shield them from their 
tyrant pursuers. The supreme court had declared all 
this to be the exact meaning of the words of the con- 
stitution. 

Then the church, everywhere in the country, had 
pronounced the same system of all unutterable cruel- 
ties, abominations and wickedness to be in exact ac- 
cordance with the will of God, as revealed in the 
scriptures of both Old and New Testament. 

And the church, or rather the clergy, presumed on 
one step farther. The federal constitution has some- 
thing to say about the right of the people " peaceably 
to assemble" for any proper purpose. The pulpit, 
far and wide, proclaimed to the extent of its spiritual 
jurisdiction and influence, that abolitionists had no 
such rights, and for a time the government sanctioned 
such a ruling, and, as has just been shown, loaned its 
prisons for enforcing it. 

For it should be kept in memory that Mr. Foster 
never invaded a religious assembly against its own 
usages, till the proclamation had gone forth that lec- 
turers had no right to enter a parish, not a meeting- 
house, without the pastoral consent and approval. 
Not till long after that audacious decree had had its 
dire result in keeping the people, especially the church 
membership, from entering the anti-slavery meetings, 



298 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

free as they almost invariably were of entrance, and 
of speech, as well. And it required many a prosecu- 
tion, fine, imprisonment and other gross outrages, to 
break down that formidable "bulwark" and give the 
proclamation of liberty free course to run and be 
glorified. 

But the strength of the anointed ones became equal 
to their day and its duties, and their courage and faith 
to its dangers and endurances. 

The imprisonment of Brown and Allen awakened a 
similar zeal in many others, both in New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts. Perhaps it is true to say that in 
those two states, the hardest battle with the ecclesias- 
tical power, and so the severest of the whole conflict, 
was fought. 

The jails of Newburyport and Salem, Massachu- 
setts, were several times honored by the entrance and 
detention for longer or shorter periods, of the victims 
of pro-slavery spleen and spite. I think in every in- 
stance church members not only instigating, but ac- 
tually prosecuting the suits. Even the county house 
of Essex county was put in requisition for the same 
unrighteous purpose. The offender in that instance 
was a woman, Mrs. Almira Swett, of Georgetown. In 
a somewhat voluminous history of Essex county, pub- 
lished in 1S78, mention is made of the anti-slavery 
operations in Georgetown, and the following is ex- 
tracted from the account : 

No movement in Georgetown was ever of a more 
.stirring or important character than that of the early 
agitation of the question of anti-slavery. In it were 
enlisted many men and women whose hearts were fully 
committed to the agitation. Among the leaders in 
the reform were Theodore G. Elliot, Moses Wright, 
James H., Asa W. and Almira Swett, and others. The 
speakers frequently heard were William Lloyd Garri- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 299 

son, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, Parker 
Pillsbury, and the long line of the advocates of that 
cause. They carried the discussion to the doors of the 
churches, which were then committed to silence. Rev. 
Mr. Braman was unfriendly to the agitation, which 
added warmth and interest to the debates. These 
speakers were bold and incisive in their utterances, 
which made the conflict between them and the con- 
servatives, as they were called, warm. Mrs. Swett 
was one of the boldest of the female supporters of the 
cause, and when she attended church she was accus- 
tomed to take her knitting work with her, which led 
her to be arrested for contempt of worship. For this 
and for the defense of her brother, who was before the 
church for waywardness on this subject, she was ar- 
rested and tried, being charged in the forms of law 
with "assault and battery." She was convicted and 
sent to Ipswich. When arrested, she told the officers 
she " could not leave home at that time ; that her 
family needed her attention." She offered no resist- 
ance, simply declining to comply with the request of 
the officer. Assistance was procured, and Mrs. Swett 
was lifted into the sleigh and carried into the court 
room in the same way. After trial and conviction 
she was borne back to the sleigh and carried to Ips- 
wich, but the keeper of the " House of Correction" 
declined to receive her, declaring that those who had 
brought her there deserved more than she to be re- 
tained. The meetings of the Come-outers were held 
on the steps of churches, in groves, and in barns. 
Thomas P. Beach was once rotten-egged while 
speaking from the steps of a church. To avoid this 
indignity in barns, the women were seated and the 
speaker stationed before them, when the doors were 
opened to accommodate the listening crowd without. 

It has been intimated in early parts of this work 
that the course of Mr. Foster and others in entering 
the meeting houses during Sunday services and asking 
or claiming the right to be heard on the subject of 
slavery, did not meet the approval of Mr. Garrison nor 
many of the most prominent abolitionists. But the 



300 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

sin, if it were sin, was like some of the psalms ; one of 
"degrees." All anti-slavery meetings would have 
been prevented if possible, at the north, as they were 
actually at the south. The northern pulpits forbade 
them just as far as they had the power. Edward 
Everett, a clergyman, when made governor of Massa- 
chusetts, said in his message to the legislature, refer- 
ring to anti-slavery meetings and measures : " What- 
ever by direct and necessary operation is calculated 
to excite insurrection among the slaves, has been held 
by highly respectable legal authority, an offense against 
the people of the commonwealth, which may be prose- 
cuted as misdemeanor, at common law. The patriotism 
of all classes must be invoked to abstain from discus- 
sion, which by exasperating the master, can have no 
other effect than to render more oppressive the con- 
dition of the slave." 

But no abolitionist worthy the name, held, or 
attended one meeting the less for any threats of gov- 
ernors, ministers or mobs. , And what wonder that 
some went so far, in the name and spirit of New 
Testament christian liberty, as to believe it their sol- 
emn duty as well as natural right to enter any chris- 
tian assembly to plead the cause of down-trodden and 
bestialized humanity ? 

And women not unfrequently carried their knitting 
work, as men did their novel or newspaper into the 
cars, and entertained themselves as best they might 
while they rode along. Women did the same at con- 
ventions, and do still ; and more than Georgetown 
women did the same thing at the Sunday meetings as 
their testimony and rebuke against the solemn mock- 
ery of a worship that in long sermons apologized for 
slave-holders and proved their right to hold slaves,, 
both by patriarchal example and the divine approval 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 30 1 

in Old and New Testament precept and permission. 
And they had other motives, the same as were preached, 
and practiced too, by Martin Luther, when he wrote 
to his converts ; " If any set up sabbath observance 
on a Jewish foundation, or for the mere day's sake, 
then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance 
on it, or to do anything on it that shall reprove this 
encroachment on the christian spirit and liberty." 
Calvin and the Fathers of the reformation did the 
same. The taste of such things may be questionable, 
especially judged by modern standards. But the 
right is another affair. Daniel Webster somewhere 
said he might have rights concerning which, ordinarily, 
he should feel little interest ; but let one of the least 
of those rights be invaded or threatened, and he 
declared he would plant himself on its extremest verge 
and contend for it to the death ; as who would not ? 
Mrs. Swett testified against the mockery of a worship 
that would not plead for the slave, nor permit others 
to do it, by quietly sitting down with her knitting 
work in front and full view of the minister. Her 
brother rose in his place and bore testimony in the 
same behalf by word of mouth ; and both acted from 
religious sense of duty ; and doubtless, with as lofty 
spirit of devotion as ever actuated the heart of John 
Calvin or Martin Luther, or the most saintly of their 
disciples. 

When Boston was sending back fugitive slaves, 
armed citizen soldiers were brought from distant 
towns in Massachusetts, and Faneuil hall was turned 
into barracks for their accommodation, to protect the 
slave-hunters and their accomplices while they seized 
their prey, proved property and triumphantly bore it 
away. It might have been in questionable taste, but 
it certainlv was a testimonv of stunning force, when. 



302 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

at a great grove anti-slaver)- gathering on a Fourth of 
July, Mr. Garrison, holding a copy of the constitution 
of the United States in his hand, literally and deliber- 
ately set it on fire and consumed it, to the delight, as 
well as with the approval of thousands who sat or 
stood around him. 

That constitution was the pledge and solemn guar- 
anty from the north to the south that any attempt on 
the part of the slave to escape from his bondage, by 
fighting or by flight, should be resisted by the north, 
at whatever cost of treasure or blood. What better 
did such a constitution deserve than to be branded as 
"a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell," 
and to be burned with fire before all the people ? And 
what day so appropriate for such auto da fc, as the 
Fourth of July ? And who so worthy to officiate at 
the altar of sacrifice as William Lloyd Garrison ? 

And thus did earnest, brave men and women of 
varied description as to culture, calling and sense of 
propriety, seek to subserve the interests of their com- 
mon humanity by such methods and measures as 
seemed right in their sight. 

Arrests and imprisonments were frequent, some- 
times for actual offense, sometimes for being present 
and approving the act. The names of several are 
before me ; most of them now numbered with the 
departed. Prominent among them, as to order of ar- 
rest, or length of imprisonment, were Jesse P. Harri- 
man, of Danvers, Massachusetts, and Thomas Parnell 
Beach, a native of Vermont, but Congregational min- 
ister in New Hampshire, for several years, or till he, 
as heretofore described, identified himself with the 
anti-slavery cause. His great labors and severe suf- 
ferings, by imprisonments and otherwise, chiefly in 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts, early broke him 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



3°3 



down, and compelled him to retire from the conflict. 
Having relatives in Ohio, he removed with his family 
to that state, and when able, was successfully em- 
ployed as a teacher. But in the year 1846, he was 
released to his well-earned rest and reward, when only 
thirty-eight years of age. His longest and severest 
confinement was in Newburyport jail, where he was 
kept three months, in the winter of the years 1841 and 
1842. He was arrested for attempting to speak in 
two Sunday meetings, one in Danvers, the other at 
Lynn. For the double purpose of showing the spirit 
and temper of the accused, and the nature of their 
offenses, I will first permit one of them to speak for 
himself, through his prison bars. While in confine- 
ment, Harriman wrote a number of letters to the Her- 
ald oj Freedom, and the following are excerpts from 
two of them, dated : 

Salem Jail, Sept. 24 and 27, 1842. 

Dear Brother Rogers — I write from within the 
granite walls of a loathsome prison. A rather singu- 
lar place to put non-resistants, but so it is, and I sub- 
mit with meekness. Oh, God, enable me to forgive 
my enemies ! This is what I want to feel. I can as- 
sure them I will never be the means of sending them 
here, or to any similar place. 

But the question may be asked, how came you im- 
prisoned ? I answer, through the instigation of the 
church, either directly or indirectly. Let us see if it 
be not so: 

On the Fourth of July, it was Sunday, Thomas P. 
Beach felt it his duty to go into the Baptist meeting- 
house, at Danvers, New Mills, and speak in behalf of 
the down-trodden slaves, our three millions of christian 
heathen ! He went, and when there was an interval 
in their wicked worship, (I think it wicked), he rose 
and began to speak. The committee, Black and Cald- 
well, fell upon him and dragged him from the house 
with great violence. He was then prosecuted for go- 



< 



304 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

ing into the house. The officer came to my house on 
Sunday and arrested him. He commanded me in the 
name of the commonwealth to help him. I utterly re- 
fused. My answer was, in the name of God, I refuse. So 
I am here for not helping to drag Brother Beach from 
my own dwelling. And I now say to the world, I 
will never commit such a sin, though, as a result, 
bonds and imprisonments should ever await me. 

But how has the church been the instigator of my 
imprisonment ? They have sanctioned all the doings 
of those who put me here. How did Saul assist when 
Stephen was stoned to death? He did not cast one 
stone at him. But he kept the raiment of those who 
did. To this hour, not one of the New Mills church 
has visited me, except my wife and Mrs. Porter, who 
lives in our house. One of the old members took 
friend Black by the hand, after he had dragged Beach 
from the meeting-house, and said : " Major Black, 
you have my hearty thanks for what you have done." 
Black testified to this under oath, before John W. 
Proctor. That church has never shown to the world 
that they were opposed to the proceedings in the case 
of Brother Beach or myself. On the other hand, they 
have shown to all around them that they are in full 
fellowship with our being in jail. * * The 
scripture saith : " The name of the Lord is a strong 
tower : the righteous runneth into it and is safe." 
But the church goes to the state for protection. * 
* Will the church of the blessed Savior cast into 
prison, or uphold slavery and war? Never! Christ 
said, " My kingdom is not of this world." * 

Thomas P. Beach is now in Newburyport jail, on two 
indictments. One by the Baptist church and society 
in Danvers, William Black acting as their tool. After 
he had caused a writ ,to be issued against Brother 
Beach, and the officers had come to my house and 
taken him, he seemed to repent. At any rate, he sent 
and withdrew the complaint, and Beach was set at 
liberty. I saw Black the same day, and he said, in 
front of my house, " I am sorry I had anything to do 
with this. I should not, only that I was excited. I 
would rather have given ten dollars than made the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 305 

complaint." To another person he said : "I went to 
the Baptist meeting to see the fun." Then, when the 
complaint was renewed, he went before (justice) 
Proctor, and stated, under oath, that he made the 
complaint as one of the selectmen of the town. And 
when Mr. Proctor commented on his testimony he 
said, " Mr. Black is one of the fathers of the town, 
and his testimony, on that account, is entitled to more 
weight," or words to that effect. What, friend Rog- 
ers, do you think the children of such a town must 
be, from such a father?" 

The other indictment against Beach is from the 
Quaker society at Lynn. I saw the whole transac- 
tion — heard Beach speak, heard the uproar, and saw, 
with astonishment, those worshiping Quakers thrown 
into whirlwinds of passion. The spirit seemed to move 
them with great violence. How James P. Boyce and 
other professed abolitionists can remain in that wicked 
body, I do not know. This thee and thou religion 
seems to me not worth having. Boyce sat looking, at 
the time of the outrage on Beach, with a complacency 
to me unaccountable. Had it been in any other than 
a Quaker meeting-house, he would have cried " Sec- 
tarianism ! Priestcraft!" at the top of his voice. I 
would, in all kindness, advise him and James N. Buf- 
fum to begin a little reform in their own society be- 
fore crying " Priestcraft " so much abroad. * * 
Thomas Parnell Beach now lies in Newburyport jail, 
for speaking in the Quaker meeting-house, at Lynn, 
in behalf of our millions of oppressed and bleeding 
slaves. And what good does it do the cause of God 
to go to that house on the first day of the week, and 
sit there mute as dumb dogs ? Why are not Boyce 
and Buffum mute in meetings out of town? How 
happens that the spirit moves them to speak in all 
other places but that Quaker bastile ? I 

feel, and the slaves must feel, that it is high time that 
Quaker nest were stirred up. * * 1 write 

this rough letter in Salem jail, on Sunday night, 
between seven and eight o'clock, with my Bible one 
side of me, and your Herald of Freedom, on the other, 



306 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

and why mav I not speak out ? I write amid granite 
walls and iron bolts and bars. I am a slave, shut in 
here ; so bear with me a little longer as your brother 
in bonds, Jesse P. Harriman. 

Such was the faithfulness with which abolitionists 
were in those perilous days accustomed to deal with 
one another, no matter how dear to each other, nor 
how prominent in position or influence. But it so 
turned out that our true-hearted friend Harriman 
received in the same paper with his faithful reproofs 
of Boyce and Buffum, an announcement which must 
have cheered and encouraged him greatly in his 
lonely cell. Beach, too, heard the same glad tidings 
down in his Newburyport confinement, showing him 
that his work among the Quakers of Lynn had already 
borne glorious fruit among the most noble and intelli- 
gent young men and women in the society ; for on the 
next page of the Herald containing his letter, Mr. 
Harriman read the following incidental notice of 
James Buffum, by Mr. Rogers, giving account of a five 
days' Strafford county anti-slavery meeting held at 
Great Falls : 

Our gallant friend, James N. Buffum, of Lynn, was 
at our Great Falls meeting and afforded the usual aid 
and interest derived from his originality, good sense, 
and excellent simplicity of heart. Friend Buffum is 
not a lecturer ; he is better; he is a talker; though 
his talk very often rises into the most effectual elo- 
quence of speech. Give us enough such talkers and 
we will talk the infernal slave system out of the sym- 
pathy of everybody who has humanity enough left to 
pass muster among mankind. Our imprisoned brother 
Harriman calls on friend Buffum to deal impartially 
with Quakerism at home in Lynn, as he does with sect 
abroad. I can gladden friend Harriman's heart by 
the fact that James Buffum has already, or is about 
doing it, renounced that broad-hatted type of secta- 
rianism and given it over to Satan, with the faithful 
intrepidity of a Come-outcr. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 307 

Before returning to the Harriman and Beach arrest 
and imprisonment, it will be pertinent and profitable 
to introduce a brief extract from the history of Lynn, 
as found in the late, large, and generally valuable his- 
tory of the county of Essex, Massachusetts. The 
reasons for it will be apparent in subsequent pages. 
The extract is as follows : 

The year 1841 is to be remembered in Lynn as the 
time of a fresh efflux of free thought exhibited by 
what became widely known as the " come-outers." 
These people were primarily Garrisonian abolitionists, 
starting with the unimpeachable doctrine of human 
equality before the law. But not finding the cause of 
the slave well espoused by most of the religious bodies 
of that day, they unwisely pronounced all the churches, 
in league with Slavery, and called for good men and 
women to come out and testify against them. Hence 
the name, come-outers. They were not confined to 
Lynn, but they had a strong position here, being 
upheld by such men as Christopher Robinson, Jona- 
than Buffum and others, men of private and public 
excellence apart from the delusion here sustained. 
The real mischief was from without, as will appear. 
On a Sunday in 1841, they rallied here in force, deter- 
mined to try a bold, though foolish movement. The 
people in general knew nothing of it ; but there were 
in town, Stephen S. Foster, Nathaniel P. Rogers, 
Parker Pillsbury, Thomas P. Beach, Henry Clapp, Jr., 
and many others, full of bitter words and martyr 
spirit. Dividing into parties, they repaired to several 
of the churches of the largest congregations, entered 
without ceremony, and interrupted the services with 
excited harangues. Foster led off at the first church ; 
Dr. Cook commanded him to " sit down ; " but as he 
paid no heed, half a dozen men quietly seized him 
and carried him out, passive as a log, and set him on 
the side-walk, his mates following. Pillsbury at the 
same time, headed an attack on the Baptists ; and 
proving more troublesome, was shut up in a closet 
and detained till the end of service. Afternoon, noth- 
ing daunted, Beach entered the First Methodist 



^o8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

church alone, leaped the altar-rail during the last 
prayer, and began to talk. No questions were asked, 
for the thing was well noised about and Methodist 
blood is not given to hesitation ; in a minute, Beach 
was going ''neck and heels," and struggling smartly, 
down the aisle and steps, more being willing to help 
than could get a chance. He claimed that his thumb 
was broken in the affray, but it was not credited. 
Some of the others had visited the Quaker meeting in 
the morning, and finding opportunity, without inter- 
rupting others, had spoken and been sharply rebuked 
in turn ; but no conflict happened there. About six 
o'clock in the afternoon, Lyceum Hall was opened, 
and they made a demonstration of their own, where 
probably more harshness, more invective, more 
unreason, were poured out within an hour, than most 
ever hear in a lifetime. But there was no more dis- 
turbance ; Foster ranted to small crowds about the 
streets for a few days, not much noticed, and then 
disappeared. Others made some trouble for them- 
selves, elsewhere, and their printed effusions were 
abundant in Lynn ; but their strength was all gone in 
that one effort. 

The foregoing has at least the virtue of brevity. 
But for truthfulness, if this be a sample of his whole 
work, it certainly is fortunate for Lynn that Mr. Cy- 
rus M. Tracy is not her only historian. His first 
mistake is as to time ; He should have made it 1842. 
The second relates to number of speakers who " ral- 
lied in force." Only four came, and but two of them 
spoke in any of the churches, or attempted to speak ; 
the other two believed in the right of their companions 
to speak, under the circumstances, in any christian 
assembly, only observing the apostolic rules of decency 
and order ; and as Beach and Foster felt it their 
religious duty more than right, to do as they did, Mr. 
Rogers and I accompanied them in part of their 
attempts to be heard on that memorable occasion. 
We were all present at the Congregational meeting- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 309 

house, and saw Mr. Foster dragged out as a wolf 
might have been from a fold, though hardly by the 
sheep and lambs themselves. But we did not go to 
the Baptist house at all till we saw him, from the other 
side of the common, dragged by a furious crowd down 
the steps, and thrown violently to the ground, and, 
as afterwards appeared, quite severely hurt. 

It should be remembered that these methods were 
not adopted at all till every possible means had been 
used, from fairest to foulest, to prevent our access to 
the people, and more especially to the churches. Nor 
was Lynn, by a great way, the first attempt. Nor was 
there anything peculiar about the movements there, 
except in their greater number on one day, and in one 
place. 

On Saturday, the 25th of June, 1S42, Mr. Rogers 
and I went to Lynn and called at the very hospitable 
home of Jonathan and Hannah Buffum, intending to 
remain over Sunday. I do not recollect, and can now 
never ascertain, whether we expected to meet Foster 
or Beach, but certainly no meeting was appointed, till 
on Saturday evening, Mr. Christopher Robinson 
called with Foster and Beach at Mr. Buffum's, with 
proposals that something be done for anti-slavery 
work on the morrow. It was concluded that he and 
Foster would call on Rev. Mr. Cook, of the Congre- 
gational meeting-house, to procure, if possible, a hear- 
ing for him there, and that Mr. Beach and I should 
call on Overseer Nathan Breed, and ask for the 
Friend's meeting-house, for similar purpose. But we 
were denied in both instances. Foster first asked 
Mr. Cook if he would be willing to allow him to 
preach for him a part of the day. The no was em- 
phatic. Then would you permit us the use of the 
house at five o'clock, afternoon, or some unoccupied 



3IO ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

hour? That was also refused, and with threats that 
if he ever came into the house to speak at all, he 
"would be taken care of." Foster had said no word 
about going in, but did say, calmly, that it was uncer- 
tain where he should speak next day, but probably 
somewhere in Lynn. Friend Breed was told, when 
he denied us the Friends' house, that he must not be 
surprised if he should hear some of us speaking in 
his meeting, to which he replied, " You will find us a 
peaceable people." The next morning, Rogers went 
by himself to the Congregational house, having un- 
derstood that Foster would be there, and probably 
would attempt to address the people. I accompanied 
Beach and Foster. Foster went forward and sat 
down in a side slip, opposite the pulpit. It was as 
perfect a June Sunday as ever shone, but the large 
house and not less large minister, avoirdupois, had 
but scattered audience. 

At the close of the long prayer, which at that period 
was offered with the congregation standing, Foster, 
instead of sitting down, commenced speaking, in very 
solemn and subdued tone of voice. As soon as Mr. 
Cook heard him, he turned towards him, and in most 
military tone, as became a commander in the " church 
militant" ordered him to "sit down." Foster did not 
obey. "Sit down, sir ! " was then uttered with force 
and gesture. But Foster seemed only to hear a higher 
command, saying, " Cry aloud ; spare not ; lift up thy 
voice like a trumpet and show my people their trans- 
gressions, and the house of Jacob their sins." At 
which Cook thundered out, in a tone strangely unlike 
the solemn voice of Foster, " I command you in the 
name of the commonwealth to sit down ! " By that 
time, the sexton and two others came to the rescue, 
and seizing Foster, (whose non-resistance principles 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 311 

on such occasions always put him into a perfectly pas- 
sive state), two of them by his shoulders, his face 
downward, and the other, a most conveniently short 
man, as though gotten up for just that use, catching 
hold of him by the ankles, as he might a wheelbarrow 
by the handles, they bore him down the aisle through 
the porch, and down the steps to the sidewalk, in the 
most grotesque and ludicrous manner imaginable. 
Rogers and Beach followed, as did I and several oth- 
ers, who were of the audience, though to us strangers. 
Foster rose to his feet at once, and, looking at his 
bearers, said, pleasantly, " This, then, is your Chris- 
tianity, is it ? " He continued speaking, to attentive 
listeners, too, till the sexton, seeing the attention 
given, told the people to go back into the house. 
" No breaking in upon worship, friend sexton," said 
Rogers. "We shall have to drag you out if you do. 
Don't drive folks in, if you do drag them out." The 
sexton laughed. We all laughed. Rogers advised 
the good-natured sexton to resign and not do such 
dirty work for such a minister and church. After 
speaking some time to excellent purpose, Foster 
walked directly across the common, not many rods, 
entered the Baptist meeting-house and sat down till 
the services were closed and the benediction pro- 
nounced. Then, as the people were moving out, he 
began speaking again. The sexton at the other house 
had asked Foster, in a kindly way, why he didn't wait 
till the exercises closed, and then he would not have 
been molested. But Foster assured him "that would 
have made no difference. You would have dragged 
me out then as you have now." As those Baptists 
verily did. They fell on him the moment they heard 
his voice, like blood-hounds. They hurried him down 
the aisle and door-steps to the ground, with such 



312 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

violence as did him and his clothing serious injury,, 
as there was good reason to think they intended. He, 
however, rose up and addressed them a few gentle 
words and walked away to his lodgings, at Friend 
William Bassett's, at that time a most welcome, hos- 
pitable and desirable anti-slavery home. Rogers stood 
thoughtfully surveying the scene, when some younger 
brethren of " the Baptism of John," assailed him a 
little in the style of the high priest's palace, in Jeru- 
salem, eighteen centuries ago. " This is one of them," 
said a beardless youth, with a leer of contempt. 
Rogers did not deny. " You ought to be tarred and 
feathered," sneered out another, spitefully. "Yes," 
said the first, "and carried to the county jail." "And 
cowhided," said another, " for disturbing meetings on 
the Sabbath in such a way." 

"Ah," responded Rogers, "is that, then, the spirit 
of your worship? Does your gospel run like that, 
my friends ? Is it tar your enemies ; feather them 
that hate you ; cowhide them that despitefully use 
you ? Why, friends, is that your way? " Some of the 
world's people were rather pleased, and laughed ;. 
whereat, the knights of the tar-bucket ran away. 

At noon, we decided to hold a meeting in Lyceum 
hall, at six o'clock, and issued notices to that effect. 
Mr. Rogers, never having seen a Friends' meeting, in 
the afternoon attended their regular service, at three 
o'clock. He found there both Beach and Foster. I 
did not go near. All was still for a considerable 
time. Beach was first to break the silence. He said 
he had a testimony to bear, and proceeded in his 
usual serious and moderate manner, ten or fifteen 
minutes, and gradually drew into the then inactive 
and very indifferent course of the Friends' societies 
towards the anti-slavery enterprise in particular ; but 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 313 

also on the great evils of war, intemperance, and their 
like, when a high-seat Friend rose and said to him : 
"Thy speaking is an interruption of our worship." 
Beach responded that he thought speech was free in 
Friends' meetings, and proceeded. Then another 
voice came down from the high seat, desiring the 
friend to be quiet. But Beach kept on, till a third 
elder rose, and asked to be heard. Beach then said, 
" If anything is revealed to thee, I will hold my peace." 
" I have," said the high-seat voice, and Beach sat 
down. Then the " revealed " word was uttered, thus : 
"We request thee not to disturb our meeting any 
longer by thy speaking." Beach then resumed ; upon 
which high-seat members began shaking hands, the 
sign for closing the meeting. As the elders and some 
others passed down the aisles, William Bassett, then 
an esteemed and much respected young member, 
called out to them to remain and hear the truth, and 
not run away from it. Just then, his mother, a ven- 
erable and highly honored member of the society, 
rushed forward, and in great apparent grief besought 
him, in piteous and pleading tones, to desist and be 
quiet. But he answered her tenderly and affection- 
ately, though firmly, " Mother, I am about my 
heavenly Father's business, and cannot hear thee 
now." He then proceeded at some length, most of 
the elderly men having gone out. When Mr. Bassett 
had closed his testimony, which he confessed he had 
too long neglected, Foster arose, most of the women 
and young men remaining, and some of the elders re- 
turning, and stepping on a seat overlooking the crowd, 
he called attention to "that afflicted mother," as he 
designated Mrs. Bassett. "Mark her distress and an- 
guish of spirit. It would be no wonder, nothing 
strange or new, should her reason be dethroned by 



314 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

such shock upon it ! And who but you ministers of 
those ' high seats ' would be the guilty cause of her 
calamity?" He was proceeding in such fervid strain, 
when the older members, near the door, dashed for- 
ward, and seizing him with great violence, pulled him 
down from the seat and started with him for the door. 
Friend Nathan Breed had told Mr. Beach and me the 
evening before, that we would find them "a peaceable 
people," should we wish to speak. And here and thus 
they were. But before Foster had been dragged half 
way to the door, a brave young friend had reached 
him, and called out to the furious crowd, " Hold ! you 
shan't drag this man out." He was followed by several 
others, and Foster was rescued and resumed his speak- 
ing. Of course the excitement was very great, but 
Foster now had full opportunity. He cited George 
Fox and Edward Burroughs, the highest Quaker au- 
thorities for entering any religious assembly, and de- 
manding right to be heard. He called for the history of 
their example, and William Bassett immediately pro- 
duced and read it to them all, undoubtedly to the as- 
tonishment of most of them. The fact was, Beach 
and Foster had done exactly what the early Friends 
both did, and defended and taught, if they did not 
command, and their cause prospered greatly through 
their bravery and fidelity, as did ours that day at Lynn, 
as has been already seen. 

When, at a late hour in the afternoon, the crowd at 
the Friends' meeting-house dispersed, Foster and 
Beach took some notices of our Lyceum hall meet- 
ing and walked down, Beach to the First Methodist, 
and Foster to the Baptist house, from which he had 
been dragged, a few hours before, intending to read 
them at the close of their third services. But both 
were dragged out with savage fury, though both meet- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. ^ r 5 

ings were nearly done when they entered the houses. 
Both were non-resistants, and so accepted quietly such 
usage as was tendered. Beach had a thumb dislo- 
cated by Methodist madness, which cost him severe 
suffering, as well as for a long time the use of his 
hand. Foster suffered the loss of a part of his coat 
collar, through Quaker quiet, and a sleeve cuff by Bap- 
tist hands. But that was not all. Though their ser- 
vices were through, he was caught up and carried 
down to the porch and thrust into a dark closet under 
the stairs, where the sexton kept the lamps, oil-cans, 
and other similar sanctuary utensils, and stored him 
there "some fifteen or twenty minutes." When they 
finally released him, he made them a short and kindly 
address, and holding up his damaged raiment, he said, 
"This torn collar illustrates Quaker Christianity, and 
this absent cuff is an emblem of your Baptist 
religion." 

It need not be said that by this time the town was 
quite awake. We hardly dared think that our Lyceum 
hall meeting would be tolerated. But it was, and 
crowded, too, and continued with unabated interest 
three hours, and the order and quiet were all that 
could be desired. All four of us from New Hamp- 
shire were heard with attention and respect ; and 
though we spoke our extremest thought on the rights 
of speech and of worship, and of the importance of 
a true understanding of them for the success of the 
anti-slavery enterprise, beset by foes on every hand, 
and of every description, the pro-slavery church and 
clergy, of course the most deadly and dangerous, the 
very "bulwarks of slavery," not one whisper of doubt 
or dissent was manifested by word or deed. Foster 
not only invited, but urged discussion on any of our 
positions, then and there, by clergy or laity, or any 



316 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

who might differ with us. We had heard that some 
of us were to be arrested on Monday, but we volun- 
tarily put ourselves on trial, and were now ready, he 
said, to meet our accusers. But no one appeared, 
then nor on Monday. Prosecutions had been threat- 
ened, but none came. So on Tuesday, Rogers and I 
returned to New Hampshire, leaving Foster and Beach 
to pursue the work in their own way, which they did, 
and with mighty power, and signal success, too, not- 
withstanding the complacent conclusion of Mr. Tracy, 
the Lynn historian, that "their strength was all gone 
in that one effort " in Lynn, as we shall see. 

Foster extended his field with Beach to Boston, and 
then alone to New Bedford and Nantucket. There 
the people became so stirred, Quaker population 
though it largely was, as to break up his course of lec- 
tures with one of the fiercest mobs of the whole con- 
flict, and he was solemnly advised to leave the island, 
" to prevent the shedding of human blood," which he 
accordingly did. But he soon after more than com- 
pleted his course of lectures, for at the request of 
leading citizens of Nantucket, he wrote and published 
" The Brotherhood of Thieves ; or a True Picture of 
the American Church and Clergy." The world some 
day may wish to see it. It ran through ten editions, 
of two thousand copies each, and produced most 
millennial results, both east and west. For stunning 
as the title page sounded, the seventy-two subsequent 
pages proved beyond doubt or question, that it was 
true and just. 

But Beach and Foster did not hasten their depar- 
ture from Essex county. Soon they were in South 
Danvers and Danvers New Mills. Were both dragged 
out of meeting-houses there as at Lynn, and for the 
same offense. Their experiences there were varied, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 317 

sometimes adverse, then more prosperous, as they 
happened to fall into the civil or ecclesiastical grasp. 
They could at least be heard in court, as never in the 
church. And they were even permitted to decline 
testifying at the civil tribunal, if for conscience sake 
they declined, as Foster did on one oceasion, if no 
more. 

Beach would have been a dipped Baptist, at New- 
Mills, whether he would or no, but for the good-na- 
tured roguishness of a boy in emptying the water 
trough ; and Foster might have seen one of his South 
Danvers persecutors severely punished had he been 
willing to appear against him in court. 

The Herald of Freedom of the 2 2d of July, 1842, 
has this brief notice of the scenes, headed " Beach 
and Foster Imprisoned by the Church." "Thomas 
P. Beach, our anti-slavery lecturer, rose to speak in a 
professed christian meeting at Danvers New Mills 
Sunday before last, and the professors flew into a rage 
and fell upon him and dragged him out of the meet- 
ing and went to plunge him into a large water trough, 
they had filled for the purpose, but they found the 
trough dry. A little boy hearing of their sectarian 
purpose had pulled out the plug and hid it. It is 
unnecessary to say that they were Baptists. The same 
day Stephen S. Foster, as I learn, at another professed 
christian meeting at South Danvers, being kicked 
out by one of the worshippers, and the man kicking 
him, prosecuted for it by another of the worshippers. 
(because, as I suppose, he had kicked beyond worship 
measure) and Foster being ordered to testify against 
him, and declining doing so, on the ground that that 
was not his way of forgiving an injury, the church 
fined him. He declined paying the fine, and they 
thrust him into Salem jail. The New Mills Baptists 



318 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

prosecuted Beach, and sent him also to Salem jail, 
and placed several Danvers citizens under bonds for 
declining to assist in carrying the prisoner to jail." 

Imprisonments at that period were frequent of 
abolitionists, some of whom being non-resistants, were 
committed for refusing to take lessons in the art of 
human slaughter, under the milder name of " military 
duty." Most of the victims from our ranks were for 
the crime of a too liberal interpretation and exercise 
of the rights of speech and worship, in a country whose 
government and religion were incorrigibly committed 
to breeding, trafficking in and holding slaves. 

The imprisonment of Thomas Parnell Beach at New- 
buryport, foreshadowed by the letter of Mr. Harriman 
from Salem jail, already given, came a few weeks 
later. He was kept in close confinement three months, 
on indictments by the Lynn Quakers and Danvers 
Baptists. His own account written in the jail reads 
to this purport : 

" I was indicted on the Danvers and the Lynn 
Quaker affair. Those quiet, meek, peaceable, perse- 
cuting followers of Jesus have marched up and bowed 
their joints at the door of the court house and begged 
the state to stretch out the bayonets, load up the big 
guns and rifles, and drive this blood-thirsty Beach to 
prison sine die, or till he pay a fine of a hundred dol- 
lars, which he has no means of paying, and could not 
pay conscientiously if he had. For every dollar so paid 
helps the church to persecute Christ, making the state 
her more willing tool. I am not astonished that Dan- 
vers' Baptist majors and captains should fly to the 
courts and the forts, but that meek, loving, forgiving 
Quakers, who cannot bear arms, which are the only 
possible support of human governments, can step for- 
ward and say to the state, ' Please imprison Thomas 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 319 

Beach because we shook hands and broke up our 
meeting! Spirits of George Fox and Edward Bur- 
roughs, awake ! awake !' " 

Most, perhaps all, who were active in this persecu- 
tion of an innocent but brave, noble, peaceful and 
conscientious man, have long since passed with him to 
their final account, so I would tread softly on their 
ashes, and speak of them only in tones of tenderness 
and charity. I will let their victim be mainly his 
own chronicler. He forgave them here ; he will for- 
give them there, or wherever they have gone, and help 
them to forgive themselves. His friends, while he 
was confined, brought his family to Newburyport, and 
kindly and tenderly cared for them. His little boy, 
three or four years old, shared his cell with him much 
of the time ; and through his prison bars he spoke to 
larger audiences and to better purpose than ever be- 
fore ; though always one of the most impressive, per- 
suasive, effective pleaders for the deliverance of the 
enslaved who ever entered the field. 

While a prisoner, he not only wrote some powerful 
articles for the Newburyport Herald, some of which 
are now before me ; but the friends of Freedom, not 
knowing whether he would ever be discharged, estab- 
lished a paper expressly for him, called A Voice from 
the Jail. It ran during his confinement, and was con- 
ducted with remarkable ability. Some of its pages 
flashed as with heavenly fire ; every word of them 
would be worth reprinting, were it only to reveal the 
power, intellectual and spiritual, of some of the 
bravest champions in reform, whose word and work 
ever enlightened and blessed mankind. 

With a very few extracts of articles written by Mr. 
Beach while a prisoner, this account, already too 
extended, will close. 



320 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

On the right to speak anywhere in behalf of 
enslaved millions, ground down into the dust as human 
being never was before ; and when every voice, every 
press, every pulpit, was bidden to silence, as widely 
'and effectively as possible, he wrote thus : 

I will not stop to argue nor question the right. 
Every instinct of my humanity, or anybody's, will 
sharply rebuke the cowardly, quivering spirit that 
should moot this query and respond to it ; is it 
right to speak for enslaved, crushed humanity any 
where ? Right to speak in God's house for three 
hundred new-born babes daily sacrificed to the Mol- 
och of slavery ! Right to echo the prayer of three hun- 
dred and fifty thousand women, members of nominal 
churches, that they may be delivered from the lust, 
violence, and degradation to which a man-stealing 
church and clergy have reduced them ! Right to 
stand on the threshold of the sanctuary, and cry in the 
ear of the dozing priest and deacon, thus guilty in 
fellowshipping hell itself as a christian institution ; to 
beseech them to lift their heel from the neck of my 
wife, brother, sister, mother ! Right to cry robber, 
adulterer, murderer, in the ear of a church that buys, 
sells and enslaves God's own image ; that sells Jesus 
Christ at auction, and then declare they " have not vio- 
lated the christian faith /" O shame, where is thy 
blush? O spirit of 1835 and '37, where art thou? 
Does fear wither thy courage ? or startle thee from 
thy high purpose to deliver the slave, at all hazards ? 
has love, or desire of applause ennervated thy power, 
or scattered those rays that once came flashing, burn- 
ing from thine eyes ? * * * * 

* * Oh, if the state could have enough of 

this work to do, it would soon be sick of supporting 
the victims of church malice and sectarian hate ! 
* * I want company here ; I wish every jail in 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire filled with those 
who have boldness enough to go and charge upon 
these God-dishonoring corporations, not only all the 
guilt, for the tears, stripes, groans and degradation of 
the slave, but also for the bolting and barring of every 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 321 

prison door, the beheading and strangling of every 
criminal and culprit in the land, together with all the 
blood shed, from Abel down to the present hour. 
Oh my God, when will thy children be willing to suf- 
fer with Jesus, for a perishing world ? when renounce 
home, money, lands, pride, selfishness, lust, for the 
cross of Christ and the crown of glory ? * * 

* * * I am in this prison for attempting to exer- 
cise speech freely as a man. I felt called on to open 
my mouth for the slave, in places where professing 
christians meet to worship. Should I not obey that 
call ? Am I a man, and may I not speak when I 
think and feel that I ought to speak ? Why am I made 
with these organs of utterance and capacities for 
thought and conviction if all may be controlled by the 
power of others ? Why have I sympathies for my suf- 
fering kind if I may not let them flow out? What did 
God mean in my formation ? Has He made me in 
mockery ? Is He deluding me ? Is He trifling with 
His intelligent creation ? He, who never trifles with 
brutes nor inanimate nature ? I spoke for the slave on 
my humanity's motion, and at the bidding of God, and 
I am here for it. Well, I will bear it as becomes a 
man. But let me tell my incarcerators, they commit 
a mighty mistake when they imprison a nature that 
knows how to endure privation like this. * * 
I am a prisoner, but no matter, it is experience — an in- 
valuable teacher. I am an abolitionist now, and can 
remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. 

* * Oh, the crime of making slaves of human 
beings ! Of keeping them slaves ! Oh, the responsi- 
bility which lies on this Christendom ! Oh, the crime 
of professing godliness, and keeping humanity in 
slavery ! This is the crime of the churches. Oh, the 
awful crime against God and man of assuming a priest- 
hood, pretending it to be christian, and using its 
mighty influence to perpetuate human enslavement 
and hinder a peaceful movement for its overthrow ! 

Speech, glorious organ of reform among men, will 
it ever be free ! Free, it would work wonders. Free, 
men and women would then speak like God. Now 
speech is enchained. Men speak as they would walk 



322 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

in fetters, and they look as they speak. The human 
look is cowered and brought down, and all human 
action seems constrained and servile. 

The list of the imprisoned could be extended, but 
the instances given already must suffice. They show 
what manner of spirit actuated both the persecutors 
and their victims Many more were roughly removed 
from meetings where they attempted to speak in most 
decent and proper manner for the enslaved, some of 
them women of spotless purity of heart and life. The 
churches lost many of their choicest members and the 
Come-outer connection greatly increased, especially in 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Hayward's 
" Book of Religions " contains an excellent descrip- 
tive account of them, written by William Bassett, whose 
name has already graced honorably these pages. 
Many meetings of them were established, and the 
present Free religious societies, now so widely known, 
may be truly said to have had their beginnings then 
and there. Lynn furnished memorable instances 
Two months after the Sunday demonstration there by 
Beach and Foster, already described at so great length, 
Mr. Rogers was again there and attended the regular 
" Come-outer " meeting. He wrote : " Though the 
clergy taunt them for their homely name, they must 
have trembled yesterday when they saw the people 
throng to their meeting in such numbers." Among 
the speakers on that day was Frederick Douglass, then 
comparatively new on the anti-slavery platform. He 
spoke on the subject of prayer, and illustrated it by 
his own experience while a slave. He said he prayed 
long and earnestly for freedom in words as he had 
been taught but nothing came of it. At length he 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 323 

addressed his legs : " O legs, give me freedom ! O 
legs, bring me to freedom ! And as you see," he said, 
"they did it. They answered my prayer." 

And Douglass might have added, perhaps he did 
add, you " Come-outers" arc but fugitive slaves escaped 
from your spiritual and ecclesiastical plantations. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CONVENTIONS AT NANTUCKET AND NEW BEDFORD- 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS DISCOVERED— LETTER FROM 
MR. GARRISON— MEETINGS AND MOB DEMONSTRATIONS 
IN SALEM— OPERATIONS IN MAINE— MOBS IN PORT- 
LAND AND HARWICH. 

Here may be the place to go back a year and give 
account of two conventions, memorable in anti-slavery 
history, held in New Bedford and Nantucket, in Au- 
gust, 1 841. All our meetings, of that and the following 
year, as has been seen, especially in New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts, were of intense interest, and peril, 
too, on account of the new and stern tests demanded 
of abolitionists, both in their political and ecclesiasti- 
cal relations. Both the whig and democratic parties 
and all the great popular religious denominations, as 
the Baptist, Congregationalist, Episcopalian, Method- 
ist and Presbyterian (new school and old), were all 
committed to the power and policy of the southern 
slaveholders. 

And so the text of the true anti-slavery apostles and 
prophets was : "Come out of them, my people, that ye 
be not partakers in their sins, and receive not of their 
plagues ! " 

Prominent among the speakers at that meeting in 
New Bedford, were Garrison, Edmund Quincy, and 
George Bradburn, then a talented and popular Uni- 
versalist minister and radical abolitionist ; though, 
with the other two named, now no more. We closed 
late on Sunday, and adjourned to meet at the same 
place on Monday morning at half-past seven o'clock. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 325 

This early hour was necessary to complete our busi- 
ness and be ready for the Nantucket steamer, at half- 
past ten, as we were to commence another convention 
on that island the next day. 

The "Report of Proceedings at New Bedford" is 
not now before me ; but the following resolution, 
adopted at Taunton, by a unanimous vote, the next 
week, on my return, after long discussion, is probably 
a fair specimen, as relates to the church ; and our 
position was not different towards the political 
parties : — 

Resolved, That American slavery is wholesale rob- 
bery, adultery, man-stealing and murder, and is the 
sin of the whole nation, but preeminently of the north ; 
and is sustained by both the republicanism and 
religion of the country, but preeminently by the 
religion ; * * * and hence no enlight- 

ened person should be recognized as a christian who 
is not an active, outspoken abolitionist. 

Several of our speakers were colored, of whom New 
Bedford at that time had many. I think there were 
two religious societies of colored people there, each 
with meeting-house and minister. Many of them, 
however, fled — men and women — to Canada, in 1850, 
on the enactment of the new fugitive-slave law, 
swifter than the exodus of Israel out of Egypt. 

One of them spoke so effectively at our meetings 
that he was invited to go with us to Nantucket, with 
promise of expenses paid. Not much was required 
for fare, for he and his wife were allowed only the 
forward deck, where they suffered from both sun and 
rain, especially on our return, by rain. Our company, 
of course, protested, but the rule was imperious. 

The Nantucket meeting continued two or three 
days and evenings, most ably sustained, and with 
increasing interest to the very last. Till then I had 



326 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

never heard a fugitive slave speak, nor any distin- 
guished colored man. But as Emerson used to say, 
" eloquence at anti-slavery conventions, is dog cheap." 

A young New Bedford barber, slightly colored, 
named Sanderson, never a slave, tall, handsome, 
made one of the finest addresses I had then heard on 
the subject of slavery, Edmund Quincy, who sat by 
me, remarked, and truly, as the young man sat down, 
" There was not an error of grammar in that whole 
speech." And it was more than half an hour in de- 
livery. 

Later in the evening, our invited friend from New 
Bedford, the fugitive slave, came to the platform. The 
house was crowded in every part, and he evidently 
began to speak under much embarrassment. To that 
time the meetings had advanced with increasing fervor, 
and, as this was the last session, I began to fear a de- 
cline for the close. But the young man soon gained 
self-possession, and gradually rose to the importance 
of the occasion and the dignity of his theme. In the 
course of his remarks, he gave a most side-splitting 
specimen of a slave-holding minister's sermon, both 
as to delivery and doctrine, the text being : " Ser- 
vants, obey in all things your masters." I can vouch 
for the correctness of its doctrine, from a volume of 
published sermons, preached to masters and slaves, 
(now on my desk) by the then Bishop Meade, of the 
Virginia Episcopal church. There was a parody, 
too, on a hymn then much sung at the south, entitled, 
"Christian Union." The following verses are part 
of it : 

Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell 
How pious priests whip Jack and Nell, 
And women buy and children sell, 
Then preach all sinners down to hell, 
And sing of heavenly union. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 327 

They'll talk of heaven and Christ's reward, 

And bind his image with a cord. 

And scold and swing the lash abhorred, 

And sell their brother in the Lord 

To handcuffed heavenly union. 

They'll church you if you sip a dram, 
And damn you if vou steal a lamb. 
Yet rob old Tony, Doll and Sam 
Of human rights and bread and ham, 
Kidnapper's heavenly union ! 

They'll raise tobacco, corn and rye. 
And drive and thieve and cheat and lie, 
And lay up treasures in the sky, 
By making whip and cowskin fly, 
In hope of heavenly union. 

They'll crack old Tony on the skull, 
And preach and roar like Bashan bull, 
Or braying ass, of mischief full, 
Then seize old Jacob by the wool 
And pull for heavenly union. 

I do not distinctly remember that this parody was 
given in that sermon, but as we so often heard it, 
and sometimes sung with most exquisite drollery and 
grace, it is hardly probable that it was omitted there. 

When the young man closed, late in the evening 
though none seemed to know nor to care for the hour, 
Mr. Garrison rose to make the concluding address. I 
think he never before nor afterwards felt more pro- 
foundly the sacredness of his mission nor the impor- 
tance of a crisis moment to his success. I surely 
never saw him when he seemed more divinely inspired. 
The crowded congregation had been wrought up al- 
most to enchantment during the long evening, partic- 
ularly by some of the utterances of the last speaker, as 
he turned over the terrible Apocalypse of his experi- 
ences in slavery. 

But Mr. Garrison was singularly serene and calm. 
It was well that he was so. He only asked a few sim- 
ple, direct questions. I can recall but few of them, 
though I do remember the first and the last. The 



328 ACTS OF ANTI- SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

first was : "Have we been listening to a thing, a 
piece of property, or to a man ?" " A man ! A man !" 
shouted fully five hundred voices of women and men. 
" And should such a man be held a slave in a republi- 
can and christian land ?" was another question. " No, 
no ! Never, never !" again swelled up from the same 
voices, like the billows of the deep. But the last was 
this : " Shall such a man ever be sent back to slavery 
from the soil of old Massachusetts ?" this time uttered 
with all the power of voice of which Garrison was 
capable, now more than forty years ago. Almost the 
whole assembly sprang with one accord to their feet 
and the walls and the roof of the Athenaeum seemed 
to shudder with the " No, no !" loud and long con- 
tinued in the wild enthusiasm of the scene. As soon 
as Garrison could be heard, he caught up the acclaim, 
and superadded : " No ! — a thousand times no ! 
Sooner the lightnings of heaven blast Bunker Hill 
monument till not one stone shall be left standing on 
another !" 

The whole can better be imagined than described 
by pen of mine. I could rehearse as well the raptures 
of cherubim and seraphim around the throne over the 
rescue of a thousand souls from the slavery of Satan 
and of sin. 

Before us stood one trophy, self-delivered, self-re- 
deemed from our chattel slave system, then seething 
with all the terrors of the second death. And why 
should not we have rejoiced then and there ? For 
that proved none other than the baptismal, the conse- 
crating service of Frederick Douglass into the life- 
work and ministry which he has since so wondrously 
fulfilled. 

Not long before Mr. Garrison's death, I wrote him 
a letter, congratulatory, as was his due, on the singu- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 329 

larly successful completion of his life-mission and 
work, and expressing the hope that thus ''seeing the 
travail of his soul " was his supreme satisfaction, as it 
might well be. In my letter, 1 recalled to him the 
Nantucket scene, as given above. 

Dear Friend Pillsbury — 1 did not mean that a 
fortnight should elapse before answering your letter, 
the receipt of which gave me much pleasure, not only 
because of the stirring memories of " Auld Lang Syne" 
awakened by it, but also for its very kind and frater- 
nal spirit. 

But this delay happily enables me to date my an- 
swer on New Year's day, and consequently to offer you 
the heartfelt congratulations of the season, and my 
best wishes that this may prove the happiest year you 
have yet experienced. 

However, let it bring forth what it may or must, 
whether of prosperity or adversity, joy or sorrow, 
health or sickness, even unto death, 1 have no doubt 
you will bear with courage and fortitude what ever 
comes, remembering that our earthly existence is con- 
ditioned upon ever shifting vicissitudes and final decay. 
You will be prepared to say : 

" I'll raise a tax on my calamity, 
And reap rich compensation for my pain ; 
I'll range the plenteous intellectual field 
And gather eyery thought of sovereign power 
To chase the moral maladies of man — 
Thoughts which may bear transplanting to the skies, 
Though natives of this coarse, penurious soil." 

Your anti-slavery reminiscenses seemed almost liter- 
ally to turn back the wheel of time and make me fancy 
that I was still residing in Seaver Place, where our per- 
sonal acquaintance and friendship began. Since then I 
have doubled my age, having completed my seventieth 
year on the twelfth of last month. You are several years 
my junior, and so at that period were comparatively 
a young man, but stout in heart and consecrated in 
purpose to the work of breaking every yoke and let- 
ting the oppressed go free. 



330 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Your coming into the field of conflict was specially 
timely, and displayed on your part rare moral courage 
and a martyr readiness to meet whatever of religious 
obloquy, popular derision, social outlawry, mobocratic 
violence or deadly peril might confront you as the 
outspoken and uncompromising advocate of immedi- 
ate and unconditional emancipation. 

For then the aspect of things was peculiarly dis- 
heartening, a formidable schism existing in the anti- 
slavery ranks, and the pro-slavery elements of the 
country in furious commotion. But you stood at your 
post with the faithfulness of an Abdiel, and whether 
men would hear or forbear, you did not at any time to 
the end of the struggle fail to speak in thunder tones 
in the ear of the nation, exposing its blood-guiltiness, 
warning it of the wrath to come, and setting forth the 
duty of thorough repentance and restitution. 

If you resorted to a ram's horn instead of using a 
silver trumpet, it was because thus only could the 
walls of our slave-holding Jericho be shaken to their 
overthrow. 

I need not remind you of what you were called to 
confront in the anti-slavery lecturing field, for more 
than a score of years. Atrocious misrepresentation 
and defamation on the one hand, and sharp privations 
and perilous liabilities on the other. 

And so in regard to Stephen S. and Abby Kelley 
Foster and other faithful and self-sacrificing laborers 
in the same manner. No heavier burdens were borne 
by any in the abolition ranks, nor borne with greater 
cheerfulness. 

The agitation thus produced, the light thus dis- 
seminated were essential to the overthrow of the slave 
system. 

You, too, have seen the travail of your soul, and 
may well be satisfied. Laus Deo ! 
Truly yours, 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 

So much was said in the last chapter about my 
native county of Essex, that a brief account of my 
own experiences there may here not be out of place. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY* APOSTLES. 331 

A visit I made to Salem in the spring preceding the 
operations of Beach and Foster in the adjoining towns 
of Danvers and Lynn, disclosed more vividly the type 
and temper of " new organization" than anything yet 
given, not excepting even the Chichester discussion 
not very long before. ]t has been clearly shown that 
the secession of 1840 left the American anti-slavery 
society bereft of nearly all the evangelical clergy and 
. church members who then belonged to it. Salem had 
a few excellent abolitionists, including Charles Lenox 
Remond, and the several members of the family, of 
whom he was eldest son. It was a cold dismal day 
when I arrived ; alternate snow and rain rendering it 
quite as unpleasant under foot as over head. After 
two hours of weary walking and calling and denials, 
I obtained the use of a small meeting-house, belong- 
ing to the colored people, quite in the south part of 
the town. Then I set about posting up notices, such 
as agents then carried, which unruly boys following 
me tore down almost as fast as nailed up. But the 
news went round, and the dark evening brought to- 
gether the few abolitionists of the place and enough 
colored people to make a fair audience. Salem at 
that time was almost fatally infected with prejudice 
against the African color. " Colorphobia" was the 
name we abolitionists gave the disease, and a more 
frothing, foaming madness was never visited on the 
human family. It raged so fearfully that respectable, 
intelligent, well-dressed, well-behaved colored people, 
ministers, church members, school teachers, women as 
well as men, were frequently insulted and outraged, 
not only on railroads, but wherever they were, if they 
presumed to exercise the plainest, most simple of the 
inalienable rights of humanity. In some towns, I am 
quite certain that Salem was one of them, lyceums 



332 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

refused to sell tickets to the best of colored men and 
women. Even as late as 1845, if not later, Senator 
Sumner and Mr. Emerson refused to lecture for bodies 
so bigoted and proscriptive, and their reasons for so 
declining were in the newspapers. At my first meet- 
ing in Salem, prejudice against color was the theme 
of remark. The town had furnished sufficient reasons 
only a short time before for such a course. On the 
following evening we held our meeting in a commodi- 
ous lecture room under Mechanics' hall, then occu- 
pied on Sundays by a religious society. But for some 
reason our numbers were not much increased. There 
was at that time a general determination on the part 
of leaders in state and church, especially the latter, to 
keep the people from coming to a knowledge of the 
truth. Reason enough surely, for the course so soon 
to be adopted by Foster, Beach and others, of going 
where the people were. 

At my second meeting, I threw down the gauntlet 
to new organization, by a direct attack on the hypo- 
critical pretensions of its anti-slavery. The Howard- 
street Congregational church had had for its minis- 
ters, Rev. Geo. B. Cheever, an imprisoned martyr, a 
few years before, for bold and daring faithfulness in 
the temperance cause ; and Rev. Charles T. Torrey, 
who had left it a few years before, that he might bet- 
ter serve the anti-slavery enterprise, and who perished 
subsequently in a Baltimore prison, for the offense, as 
was alleged, of going into the south to incite slaves 
to run away from the plantations to Canada or the 
northern states. With such a previous record, the 
Howard-street church had set itself forth as a model 
new organization anti-slavery church, and I proposed 
on the third evening, to examine its claims, not only 
to an anti-slavery character at all, but as any kind of 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 333 

anti-slavery instrumentality worthy the respect of the 
slave or his friends, or the dread or fear of tyrants 
and oppressors. 

The next evening brought together many more than 
could find admission, and the defenders of the church 
appeared in force. Some were communicants, though 
many more were not ; but all seemed inspired, or im- 
pelled, or influenced by the same spirit, and of what 
manner of spirit, the evening was to disclose. 

It was claimed for the church that six or seven 
years before it had passed and registered a resolution 
of refusal to hold christian communion and fellow- 
ship with slave-holders. It was, however, shown that 
the member of the church who presented the resolu- 
tions, had since lived a considerable time in Tennes- 
see ; was in business among slave-holders there, and 
lived unmolested ; while Birney, Dresser, Crandall 
and others, not to speak of the murdered Lovejoy, 
had not only suffered every indignity, almost, short of 
death, but had finally been driven away from the 
slave states altogether. 

My direct charges against the church, notwithstand- 
ing its anti-slavery resolutions and professions, were, 

1. That its minister exchanged pulpits with the 
other Congregational ministers of Salem and vicinity, 
many of whom were notoriously pro-slavery, and 
violently opposed the whole anti-slavery movement. 

2. When the church celebrated the sacramental 
supper, invitation was given to " all members of sister 
churches in regular standing," to sit down at the 
table. 

3. That Howard-street church was part and parcel 
of the Essex county and Massachusetts associations 



334 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

of Congregational ministers and churches ; all or 
nearly all of them being in full church fellowship with 
slave-holders. 

4. That it contributed its money to the -support of 
Bible, missionary and tract societies, that were in part 
managed as well as supported by slave-holders, whose 
money was the price of slaves bought and sold in the 
market, or of their unpaid and unpitied toil under the 
lash of cruel task-masters. 

5. That both its meeting-house and vestry were 
peremptorily refused us for anti-slavery meetings, 
where all persons present were to have equal right of 
speech and discussion. 

Such were my allegations, and not one of them had 
to be proved, for every one was admitted, and some of 
them with unblushing boasts ! It was even declared, 
by one influential member of the congregation, that 
in his opinion, if a colored family should purchase a 
pew in the central part of the meeting-house, a dozen 
families would immediately leave the society. It was 
doubtless so. Such was the anti-slavery of the How- 
ard-street church, on its own admissions and confes- 
sions. And that church was every way as good as the 
average churches of Massachusetts and of New En- 
gland, of every evangelical denomination, Instead of 
meeting my charges, the defenders of the church 
openly accused me with deliberately meditating the 
destruction of the christian church, ministry, sabbath 
and all religious institutions ; declared the Garriso- 
nians were doing no good ; were arraigning the 
churches before tribunals of ungodly men ; were in- 
ducing good men and women to leave their churches, 
to renounce their Bibles, to disregard their ministers, 
and closed his harangue, which had wrought him into 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 335 

a high state of excitement, with expressing a hope 
that the audience would not be influenced by any 
thing I should say during the meetings. 

Others spoke on the same side and to similar pur- 
port. Late in the evening, Mr. Remond rose to re- 
ply, amid much tumult, but gave way for an adjourn- 
ment to the next evening, in.the same hall. That night 
came the crowd, many evidently on mischief intent. 
The exercises were opened with prayer and reading 
part of the twenty-third chapter of Matthew. I then 
made a few remarks on the anti-slavery character of 
the Howard-street church, and its strange defense and 
defenders of the previous evening, and gave way for 
Mr. Remond. His reply to the charges against the 
abolitionists and his eulogy of Mr. Garrison, as the 
hero and champion of the anti-slavery enterprise and 
faithful friend of the colored race everywhere, north, 
as well as south, was one of the most earnest, eloquent 
and impressive utterances I had then ever heard from 
human lips, no matter of what color or race. 

But it only roused the rage of our opponents. The 
principal defender of the church generally, and of the 
Howard church in special, took possession of the floor 
and he and his troop held it for the remainder of the 
evening. On announcing my appointment for the 
next night, I was interrupted by a very ruffianly fel- 
low mounting a seat and declaiming loudly, " You can 
hold another meeting in this hall, only on condition 
that you say nothing about Howard-street church nor 
any other. Our excellent and brave friend, Mr. 
Josiah Hayward, who had attended all our meetings, 
inquired if t»hat was said in earnest and in good faith, 
and was answered that it was, and was peremptory. 
By this time the tumult became general ; but I suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a momentary hearing, and pro- 



$1,6 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

♦ 

tested against occupying any house or hall unless the 
most untrammelled free speech was permitted, both 
sides and all sides having hearing on the subject in 
hand, and insisted that any church, pulpit, or institu- 
tion that could not bear the light and the lightning of 
such investigation and examination, was a dangerous 
element, that should not be tolerated in any govern- 
ment. Probably not half I said was heard by the now 
maddened crowd that thronged every possible point of 
available space. In less than three minutes every 
slip on the side of the hall occupied by the men from 
porch to platform was not only stove down, but pul- 
verized almost to kindling wood ; and most of the 
lamps were extinguished and their shades and reflect- 
ors, if not the lamps themselves, mingled in the gen- 
eral crash and destruction. Then the other side, as 
the women rushed forward towards the platform, 
shared similar fate ; the doors and entrance were so 
thronged as to make escape impossible. It was most 
fortunate that we were on the lower floor, so that 
many of the women, greatly terrified, escaped through 
the windows. One fainted quite away and was, with 
much difficulty restored to consciousness. We had 
almost been broken up an hour before, by a false 
cry of fire raised in the vestibule, but the full chorus 
of confusion and uproar was reserved till now. I 
learned next day that my friends kept watch and ward 
over me, having reasons to fear for my personal 
safety. The threatened violence was not offered, how- 
ever, nor had it once occurred to me that I was in the 
least peril ; in all those days of darkness and danger, 
my implicit trust was in non-resistance, and in the 
infinite wisdom and power from whence, as I then 
fully believed, proceeded that sublime inspiration.. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 337 

But we and our meeting were not all that suffered 
in that visitation of mob violence. While all the proud 
and popular sectarian meeting-houses of Salem were 
closed to the cry of the enslaved, and to us who had 
espoused their cause, Rev. Mr. Comings threw open 
the doors of the hired hall of his free church and 
society, and cordially invited us in, charging no rent 
beyond cost of warming and light ; but seeing the 
general storm of opposition raised against us, the 
board of directors of the Mechanic Hall immediately 
passed the following order : 

Voted unanimously : That the Salem Free church 
be requested to vacate the room occupied by them in 
Mechanic Hall forthwith, and that the Secretary be 
ordered to notify them by sending a copy of this vote. 

Pursuant to the above, I hereby notify you that I 
shall take possession of the room immediately and 
request that you will cease to occupy it from and after 
this day. Yours respectfully, 

Henry B. Graves. 

Some little delay was, of course necessary, to pro- 
cure means of moving, and place where to move ; but 
the next the society knew, their little library and 
whatever else they possessed there, were thrown into 
the street. Their rent was ever paid punctually on 
the day it was due, and the conditions of contract 
entitled the society, as we were assured, to three 
months' notice before they should be required to 
vacate the premises. So here was exemplified, what 
really was new organized, church anti-slavery ; and 
the best of it, too. Shut out of its meeting-houses, 
vestries, chapels and every place they controlled, as 
remorselessly as from any others, we found a platform 
in a basement hall, secular in itself, though rented by 
a religious society for its Sunday service, and there we 
hoped for at least two or three evenings, we might 



$7,8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

enjoy the right and perform the duty, undisturbed, of 
pleading the cause of the down-trodden, despised and 
oppressed slaves. And with such results as are here 
only faintly and partially, but truthfully described. 
Thus desperately determined were the leaders and 
chiefs of both church and state, to prevent, as far 
as possible, the spread of genuine, uncompromising 
anti-slavery truth. 

I held one more meeting, but had to return to the 
colored people's Bethel where the series began; and it 
should be said to the credit of that little despised 
church and society, that their conduct throughout the 
whole scene, was noble, manly, womanly, brave and 
heroic to the last degree, though subjected at times to 
insult and outrage almost too shameful for human 
nature to endure. The last meeting was as riotous as 
either of the others, though the noise was mostly in 
the porch and outside, though not all. One old dea- 
con, who need not be named, as he must have been 
dead many years, abused the colored people grossly 
in his talk. But he was let off as he deserved, as he 
doubtless felt most, with a silent contempt. I was 
told that he was frequently guilty of similar behavior 
towards the people of color, though many, if not most 
of them in the town, were in every way his superiors. 

One woman, compelled by sickness to leave the 
meeting, was roughly assaulted in the porch, her cap 
and bonnet were torn off, and her dress otherwise 
badly damaged. An inoffending colored young man 
was also attacked in the porch, knocked down and 
then pitched headlong into the street ; he gathered 
himself up and ran, but was chased. In the dark, he 
threw a stone at his pursuers, which, if it hit, did not 
hurt so badly as to prevent the ruffian from prosecut- 
ing him and bringing him, next morning into court. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 339 

The case was brought before Hon. J. G. Waters. I 
attended, determined if possible to see justice done. 
To my surprise and satisfaction, Judge Waters, after 
patient hearing of the parties, dismissed the case, 
severely reprimanding the complainant, and telling 
him he was the offender, and more deserved punish- 
ment than the young man he had arrested. 

Thus terminated my first anti-slavery visit to that 
ancient town. I had good reasons to believe my 
humble services were not lost upon it ; Essex county 
became famous in the cause of true and unfaltering 
anti-slavery, and even its political abolitionists, some 
of them, were of the very bravest and best. Its 
Evangelical pulpits were always conservative, some of 
them even bitterly so ; the Unitarians and Universal- 
ists furnished some eminent exceptions ; and the 
names of Thomas T. Stone, Samuel Johnson, John 
L. Russell and Willard Spalding will always be had in 
honor as the unfaltering friends of radical, uncom- 
promising anti-slavery. 

But returning to the narrative, it should be borne 
in mind by readers that the incidents related here, 
though numerous, are only representative of thousands 
which will never be recorded ; or, as is hyperbolically 
declared in the new Testament of the works of 
another, "the world itself might not contain the books 
which should be written ; " for our conflict extended 
over thirty years. 

A day's work and its incidents, in which I had 
a partner, a quiet young beginner in the service, 
will not be inappropriate, as following the scenes and 
experiences of Salem. 

In the early spring of 1852, I made a little tour in 
the state of Maine, in which I was joined by Alonzo 
J. Grover, now an eminent lawyer at the west. He 



34° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

was then in the course of his studies, but well up in 
anti-slavery knowledge, interest and earnestness. On 
a snowy, sleety, windy morning, we arrived in Bruns- 
wick, perfect strangers to every human inhabitant. 
Dropping our not capacious valises at a corner gro- 
cerv, we ventured out to reconnoitre, with a view to 
an evening meeting. The low, level land was covered 
with the melting and melted snow and mud, making 
walking disagreeable, indeed. And we were not sorry 
that no suitable place within our means, could be had 
for our lectures, as it would be nearly impossible, un- 
der such circumstances, to secure attendance and 
a collection that would pay the expenses of the hall. 
So after an hour or two of prospecting, under much 
difficulty and discouragement, we concluded to aban- 
don Brunswick, with its college and churches, and 
try what Freeport, the next, and much smaller place, 
might do for us. 

The skies were still scowling, and some large snow- 
flakes continued to fall, melting, mostly, as they 
reached the ground. It was ten o'clock, or after, 
when we picked up our satchels and set out for Free- 
port, seven or eight miles off. 1 Tie walking was bad, 
of course ; but my companion was young and val- 
liant, and I had not then grown old. By two o'clock 
we reached our destination, having been on our feet 
nearly five and a half hours, the ground cold and wet 
and snow falling most of the time. And the Bruns- 
wick heart and hospitality were colder and more re- 
pelling than the weather. Our first inquiry on reach- 
ing Freeport, was for a hall. We soon found one of 
unattractive appearance, over a store, entered by a 
flight of outside stairs. It had no seats, only round 
the sides, being used mainly, probably, for dancing. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. ^4 1 

We could have it in the evening, seating, warming and 
lighting it ourselves, for some small sum, probably 
not more than one dollar. 

Our next business was to give notice. For that 
purpose, after posting a written bill or two at the post- 
office, and another store, we entered the street, begin- 
ning at one end, one of us on one side and the other 
on the opposite, and walked its entire length, calling 
and leaving word at every house. That occupied an 
hour or more, bringing us to the middle of the after- 
noon. We did not forget that we had not dined, but 
till our hall was secured and the people notified of our 
meeting, dinner had to wait. We dined for a few 
cents, on such crackers and cheese or herrings as the 
grocery afforded, no unusual occurrence with us in 
those days, and then proceeded with our evening prep- 
arations. There being no tavern in the town, we 
first looked up lodgings for the night. A woman who 
kept a few boarders consented to entertain us, though 
we told her that having just dined, we should need no 
supper, and might not call on her till after the 
meeting. 

Returning to our hired hall, we called at a house 
where there was plenty of dry wood, and paid the 
owner a four-pence-ha'-penny for as much as we 
could carry in our arms, and that furnished our even- 
ing fire. Then for seats, we borrowed some soap or 
candle boxes of the store-keeper, who seemed much 
to admire our thrift, and with a few boards laid on 
them, that need was met. It now only remained to 
procure the light. For that, we bought a pound of 
tallow candles, ten to the pound, and the good-natured 
store-keeper, I am sorry to have forgotten his name, 
threw us in five good-sized potatoes, out of a barrel, 
which, slashed in halves and bored, made ten, not the 



342 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

apocalyptic "golden," but good and sufficient candle- 
sticks. This was nothing new with us. I often 
lighted halls in that way. Once, I well remember, in 
Cleveland, Ohio, only with this difference, that round 
turnips were used instead of potatoes. 

It was almost dark when our preparations were 
completed, so we kindled the fire, lighted a candle, 
and, contentedly enough, sat down for a little rest, 
before the meeting should commence 

It was more than thirty years ago, in a small coun- 
try village, the day had been stormy or cloudy, dark- 
ness came on early, and so did our audience. It was 
composed wholly of men and boys. That was neither 
new nor strange. No anti-slavery meeting had ever 
been held or attempted there before, so far as we 
could learn. Others might be held possibly to excel- 
lent purpose. We were respectfully heard, so soon as 
we could get understood. As no women were pres- 
ent, some did not hasten to put away their cigars when 
we commenced speaking. " Chewing the cud " seemed 
almost as common as among the cattle in the stall. 
Neither was that any surprise ; seeing it as we had 
from our boyhood, in even the meeting-houses on 
Sunday, as well as in the pulpits and pews. Generally 
if we asked for a collection something would be 
raised, at least sufficient to pay for the hall. In this 
instance, as we traveled into and out of town on foot, 
and paid but sixteen and a quarter cents for fire and 
lights, and a very small fee for the room, I have for- 
gotten how little, we surely were not, so far, much 
out of pocket. What our boarding-house charges 
would be, we had not then ascertained. But we did 
learn, a few minutes later, when we put out our can- 
dles, and, valises in hand, presented ourselves at the 
door. We were permitted to enter and sit down. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 343 

Then our prudent hostess told us that had she known 
what was the object of our "going about," and what 
sort of lectures we gave, she should not have con- 
sented to take us into her house. Her family, she 
said, were bitterly opposed to us and our work ; and 
a good deal more in similar tone and spirit. But as 
there was no other place where we could get in, she 
would keep us over night, though we must leave as 
soon as we were up in the morning. We staid. 

Supperless to bed and breakfastless on the road 
next morning, baggage in hand, and almost before the 
villagers were any of them abroad, was prettv rugged 
discipline for my new comrade, but he bore it well ; 
and, doubtless, should he write a sketch of that day 
and night adventure he would enliven it with many 
incidents which have escaped my recollection, or 
which, for sake of brevity, I have omitted, and yet it 
was in no important sense peculiar or unusual. Every 
earnest, faithful, anti-slavery lecturer in those dark 
and often perilous days, encountered the same or much ' 
more disagreeable every week, all the year through, 
especially when, as we were then, breaking in to new 
and unexplored fields. 

But older and more cultivated grounds did not al- 
ways greet the coming of the apostle with anything 
like the Hebrew strain : " How beautiful upon the 
mountains are the feet of him who bringeth good 
tidings," as the following account of a Portland meet- 
ing proves : 

The autumn of 1842 was memorable for the vigor, 
earnestness and success, too, of the anti-slavery move- 
ment in eastern Massachusetts and eastern New 
Hampshire. Extensive accounts of meetings and 
movements in Lynn, Salem, Danvers, Georgetown and 



344 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Newburyport, Massachusetts, and of Exeter, Dover 
and Great Falls, in New Hampshire, have been al- 
ready given. 

But Portland, Maine, shared in the great and good 
work. It made itself more conspicuous, too, by its 
violent opposition to our word and work, than any 
place we visited in any state named. It did not, like 
some other towns, arrest, fine and imprison, but its 
mob-malice and rage did contemplate actual murder, 
and the wonder is how its myrmidons were restrained 
from their fell purpose. This report will be con- 
densed mainly from the Portland newspapers them- 
selves. Papers not identified with the Garrisonian en- 
terprise. In September of the year mentioned, Stephen 
S. Foster and Rev. John Murray Spear held a series 
of meetings and discussions on slavery in the city 
hall, Mr. Foster the principal speaker. Mr. Spear had 
been for some dozen or fifteen years a Universalist 
minister in different Massachusetts towns, New Bed- 
ford, Hyannis and Weymouth chiefly, when the tidal 
wave of anti-slavery reached his pulpit and swept him 
onward into the foremost billows of that then tempes- 
tuous movement. For some thirteen years he did 
faithful service in the cause of the enslaved, suffering 
severe persecution in their behalf, even before he 
abandoned the pulpit, which he did not do till he had 
labored long and earnestly to bring his denomination 
up to an uncompromising and inflexible position of 
hostility to slavery, but, like many other ministers in 
more evangelical denominations, labored in vain. A 
slave-holder bringing a slave girl to New Bedford 
while he was minister there, he brought her case be- 
fore Judge Shaw, of the supreme court, who declared 
her freedom, she being no longer in a slave state. She 
availed herself of the opportunity. Then Mr. Spear 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 345 

was arrested as a slave-stealer, the mob howling after 
him as he walked the street, " Nigger stealer ! Nig- 
ger stealer !" For some time the peace of the town 
was disturbed ; threatening and horrible images were 
hung in the night before his door, and his life was 
deemed in peril while the agitation lasted. His inter- 
est in the temperance and other reforms was no less 
than in anti-slavery, and he subsequently became, in 
connection with his brother, Rev. Charles Spear, 
pioneer in a grand movement in the interest of prison- 
ers and of discharged convicts ; and originated, and 
for years edited and published a journal, entitled the 
Prisoner s Friend, which had a wide circulation, and 
was productive of great good. In later years Mr. 
Spear has been closely associated with spiritualism, 
traveling extensively in both hemispheres, including 
a tour to the Pacific coast, to promote its interests. 

In the Portland tumult, so far as appeared by the 
newspaper accounts, Mr. Spear does not seem to have 
given any offense, but being found in bad company 
he was made to suffer accordingly. On the way to 
his lodgings he was violently asaailed and barely 
escaped with his life. But in the heavenly home 
hospitality and care of Oliver and Lydia Dennett, 
surrounded with other ministering spirits of the city, 
who watched around him, he was, after seven weeks, 
restored, though I am assured his attendants once 
gathered at his bedside expecting to witness the 
closing scene of his earthly existence. 

At the last meeting of the series, in which Mr. Fos- 
ter was to speak, as previously announced, on " The 
Influence of Southern Slavery in the Northern States," 
was witnessed, the Portland American declared : 
" One of the most disgraceful riots ever seen in Port- 
land. Mr. Foster commenced his remarks in a very 



346 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY, APOSTLES. 

mild and conciliatory manner,explaining the reasons for 
his peculiar mode of address, and saying that he was 
a friend to the laboring classes, and was a working- 
man himself. During his introduction he was con- 
stantly interrupted by singing, hissing, hooting, by 
insulting remarks and throwing of rotten eggs. The 
patience with which the audience bore the insolence 
of these reckless scoundrels induced them to proceed 
farther. The benches were broken, a general fight 
commenced, and a rush was made for the speaker. 
Our citizens, however, formed a solid phalanx around 
the desk, rendering it unapproachable. The mob 
pressed on like blood hounds for their victim. Shouts 
were heard, 'Hand him over ! Hand him over ! We 
want the blood of the d — m— d scoundrel. Murder 
the d — m — d abolitionist,' and other expressions 
equally characteristic of the temper and intentions of 
the miscreants. The mayor was present and ordered 
them to leave the hall. After a great deal of effort 
he succeeded in clearing the place. A false alarm of 
fire was raised, calling off a few, but the mob remained 
in a solid body, watching at each flight of steps and 
around the windows for the lecturer. 

At length, when it was supposed that they had dis- 
persed somewhat, he was taken out under protection 
of the mayor and several brave ladies, to the house of 
a friend, followed by some five hundred persons. He 
was several times struck on the face and back of his 
head and seriously injured. We regret to add that 
there were some men of respectable appearance whom 
we saw and heard encouraging the mob by their voices. 
* * One old man in broadcloth we mean espe- 
cially ; whose gray hairs should warn him that it is 
time he were thinking of other things than depriving 
a freeman of liberty of speech. One 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 347 

man, while the rioters were already worked up to the 
fury of madmen, shouted at the top of his lungs, 
' Turn him out ; bring a pot of lampblack,' and then 
grossly and vilely insulted the stranger in language 
too foul for our columns. * * Since the 

above was in type, the captain, of whom we spoke in 
our description of the mob, called and discontinued 
his paper, but admitted all we charged upon him ex- 
• cept the shouting at the top of his lungs." 

Another article from the same paper, commenting 
on the Portland Advertiser's notice of the affair, says : 
" The Advertiser s notice of the riot was one of the 
most cold-blooded things we have seen. Hear it : 
'Last evening our city was threatened with a mob. 
The noted S. S. Foster has given two or three lectures 
on such topics as he sees fit to connect with abolition, 
and the city hall was thronged last night with a mixed 
multitude, including some females, mostly composed, 
as we judge, of those who were inclined to stop his 
excitable harangue. Some of the friends of the lecturer 
took such measures to check the disturbances that the 
crowd proceeded to acts of violence, which broke up 
the meeting. A good many blows were aimed on both 
sides. As we believe no one was seriously hurt, we 
do not go into the disagreeable details.' So much for 
the Advertiser." 

To which the American responds : " Monstrous ! 
Our peaceful city was only ' threatened with a mob!' 
There was no mob. Oh no ! Those who rushed to- 
wards the desk and demanded the life, aye, the life, 
for we heard and saw the whole, the life of the speaker, 
who broke settees, threw rotten eggs, knocked Mr. 
Foster down in the street, struck him some twenty 
times, and who surrounded the house where he staid, 
threatening destruction t,o its inmates, these miscreants 



34-8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

did not, in view of the Advertiser, constitute a mob ! 
* The charge that 'the friends of the lecturer 
took such measures to check the disturbance that the 
crowd proceeded to acts of violence,' is false. After 
the crowd had commenced throwing missiles at the 
speaker ; after the riot had commenced ; after the 
rioters had been repeatedly urged to be quiet, a young 
gentleman rose and moved that they be expelled from 
the house. They went there with the previously ex- 
pressed determination to break up the meeting, and 
to do the lecturer bodily injury." 

Such accounts did the Portland papers give, and 
such were received as substantially correct. Mr. Fos- 
ter had his story to tell, and so had Mr. Spear, and 
so had their anti-slavery friends. To-day, after a 
lapse of more than forty years, little idea is likely to 
be formed of such scenes as were then and there, and 
often elsewhere, enacted. Foster had offended most, 
and so was most hated and hunted. Spear, though 
not less faithful when he did speak, had given less 
offense, and so was not deemed in such danger, and 
was less vigilantly shielded, and thus came nearest to 
losing his life. Foster suffered in person and apparel, 
though his friends, brave women as well as men, hov- 
ered all about him, taking off his spectacles, changing 
his hat, and in other ways disguising him. He wore 
at the time a dress instead of frock coat, the skirts a 
little elongated, as was the style. A ruffian contrived 
to get hold of one skirt and tore it squarely off, leav- 
ing the other dangling alone, looking grotesquely 
enough. But that he turned to excellent account, for 
he wore it weeks afterwards wherever he went to tell 
its own tale. And surely, " thereby hung a tale " of 
sublime import. The coat was kept in the family for 
years as a significant trophy of honorable war. But 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 349 

he suffered severely in person. Mr. Rogers, James N. 
Buffuin, myself, and others were holding a five days' 
convention at Great Falls, New Hampshire, forty miles 
from Portland, and Foster was expected to be with us 
a part of the time, but detained longer at Portland 
than was expected, he was late in reaching us. When 
at length he came, his appearance on entering, with 
ragged raiment, with sickly, worn and weary cast of 
countenance, stirred every heart and moved many to 
tears. Mr. Rogers, in his account of the Great Falls 
convention in the Herald of Freedom, thus spoke 
of it : 

" On Thursday, in the midst of our discussions, the 
meeting was deeply stirred by the entrance of Foster 
from Portland. His countenance pale and distressed 
but not cast down, and his garments torn off of him, 
fresh from the hands of a terrible mob. I can here 
only say he was greeted with most affectionate inter- 
est by the meeting, and listened to in the account he 
gave, at the request of the assembly, of the scenes he 
had just passed through, with solemn attention." 

But there were encounters sometimes more trying 
to flesh and blood than mobs. Just as the last word 
was written on the scenes at Portland, chance threw 
before me the Liberator, of April 16, 1852, containing 
the following letter, which the editor headed truly 
■enough, " One Week's Experience of a 'Field Hand.' " 

Dear Friend Garrison — I will write you the ex- 
perience of the past week. You need not publish it, 
unless you choose. Sometimes we have such weeks 
in the field service, in spite of all forecasts and pro- 
visions to prevent them. 

I left Lawrence on Monday morning on a tour 
eastward. In the evening of that day I lectured to a 
respectable audience in Rochester, N. H. Tuesday 



35° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

morning we were whirling in the midst of one of the 
most violent snow storms of the whole winter. At 
three in the afternoon I took the cars for Great Falls, 
where were to be meetings in the evening, and the 
evening following. On account of an accident the 
train consisted only of freight cars, into one of which 
we were all stowed, men, women and children, as live 
stock goes to Brighton. 

Arrived at the Falls, I wallowed about in the snow 
and slush, the storm still continuing, in search of some 
one who could give me tidings of the meetings. But 
it came out that none had been appointed, nor any 
arrangements made. Mr. Grover was to have been 
with me, but the snow storms and drifts hindered the 
cars, so I took the business into my own hands alone. 
By floundering through the deep snow and water for 
a time, I learned that the only place we could possi- 
sibly obtain was Central hall. I found the proprietor, 
and he told me it could be had at six dollars an even- 
ing, though he afterwards said he did let it for five 
dollars sometimes. Before I had time to put in my 
plea of poverty, he told me it was to be occupied so 
many evenings, that my own preengagements were 
such as to end the whole matter. Thus terminated 
the mission at Great Falls. 

Having had no appointment made for Thursday 
evening, I was induced, by my friends in Rochester, 
to return and hold one more meeting there. The 
failure at the Falls gave me Wednesday evening also, 
and so, on short notice, I called a meeting for that 
evening too. By this time Friend Grover had arrived, 
and spoke the whole of Wednesday evening, to a 
small but attentive audience. He left next morning 
to go on to Portland. At the appointed hour on 
Thursday. I went to the hall. Not a soul was there, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 35 I 

nor body even — for they do not always come together. 
Nearly an hour afterwards my audience had not in- 
creased in the least. It was Fast Day and the 
people were keeping such fast as — they had chosen. 
Such was the termination at Rochester. 

On Friday morning, I set off for Kennebunk, the 
place of my appointment. At the Kennebunk depot, 
I inquired for the persons to whom we had written, 
and found they lived five miles distant. I also learned 
that nobody lived nearer to whom I could apply, and 
that no place could be had in town, unless it were a 
small, remote school-house, for even a fugitive slave 
to hold a meeting. 

Finally, I engaged a poor man, who had lost both 
hands and arms, by the premature discharge of a can- 
non, and who drove his horse by means of hooks at- 
tached to the stumps, to carry me the five miles to 
where our friends lived. The day was dismal, and 
the riding as much so. But we arrived at last, and I 
was set down in the center of a clearing of a few hun- 
dred acres, surrounded almost completely by a low, 
thick growth of pine woods. I took out my luggage, 
paid my fare, and made up to the house. 

My repeated knocking brought no one to open. I 
tried the door and found it fast. The other door was 
faster yet. Then I went over the way, and inquired. 
The young woman thought the family were gone only 
a mile. The old lady said they were gone away to a 
funeral, several miles, and had been gone all day. 

Here, then, I was, five miles from Kennebunk depot, 
still farther from Saco, the next nearest, and three or 
four miles, at least, from everywhere else — all alone, 
with my luggage, the skies scowling with threatening 
clouds, the distant forests fencing and surrounding 
me with their gloomiest curtains, and the almost im- 



352 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

passable roads making their worst faces at me, and 
elongating their fearful miles to immeasurable extent. 
The good old lady, however, insisted on my eating 
dinner, from which she and her daughter had just 
risen. Then, with both hands full of bags and bun- 
dles, I set off, on foot, for Saco, five or six miles. 

I never in my life saw such intolerable walking in 
New England. The soil, much of the way, was clay, 
and the frost just coming out of it, and then a ming- 
ling of snow, it made a complete compound of Bun- 
yan's "Slough of Despond," "Enchanted Ground," 
"Hill of Difficulty," and all his dragons. The cold 
north-east wind, too, blew full in my face, and every 
sign denoted immediate storm. I plunged along as 
fast as possible, to escape that additional woe, and 
reached Saco and Biddeford late in the afternoon, 
possibly somewhat fatigued, and perfectly parboiled in 
perspiration. It was a pilgrimage not to be forgotten. 

The week has gone— and it has been one of most 
uncommon labor, disappointment, vexation and suffer- 
ing. I have lectured to everybody who came near 
me, but my labors in that line were confined to Roch- 
ester, and two meetings. My traveling expenses have 
been three dollars and seventy-five cents, to say noth- 
ing of my walking, which was worth twice as much ; 
my receipts have been one dollar and five cents, and I 
have not procured one single subscriber to the Liber- 
ator nor to any of our papers. Such is the experience 
of one week. Who would not be a soldier in such a 
warfare ? 

Yours, still full of hope and trust, 

Parker Pillsbury. 
Portland, April 12, 1852. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 353 

• 

A. J. Grover rejoined me in Portland, and our next 
campaign included Brunswick and Freeport, of which 
report has been already given. 

One more riotous demonstration should have place 
in these chronicles, but space and time must make it 
both brief and the last. It occurred in Harwich, Mass,. 
on Sunday, the fourth and last day of a grand anti-sla- 
very convention, held in a beautiful grove, in Septem- 
ber of the year 1848. - No building on the Cape could 
have held half the attendance. Cape Cod at that 
time was the birth-place and nursery of more sea-cap- 
tains than any other portion, of equal extent, on the 
whole Atlantic coast. And many of the most emi- 
nent of them were early able and faithful friends and 
supporters of the anti-slavery enterprise. 

But sea-captains were not all abolitionists, else the 
Harwich Sunday tumult, in defense of v the church as 
"the bulwark of slavery," would not have transpired. 
The constitution of the country, the courts, the politi- 
cal parties, the commerce and trade, had all been 
shown to be conducted in the interest of slavery, and 
no riotous demonstration appeared. But not so on 
Sunday, when the churches and clergy were arraigned 
as the bulwark and forlorn hope of the accursed in- 
stitution. The mob at Harwich was the result of an 
exposure of a diabolical deed by the captain of a 
coaster, sailing between Norfolk and New York, and 
other northern ports. I am glad to have forgotten 
his name, and do not care ever to hear it spoken 
again. 

But while in Norfolk, not long before our conven- 
tion, a slave came on board and asked this captain 
what he would charge to carry him and another to 
New York or Boston. A contract was made for one 
hundred dollars — paid in advance. The captain 



354 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

pocketed the cash, then went on shore, betrayed the 
poor slave, had him arrested, imprisoned and adver- 
tised, and then sailed north, bringing the hundred 
dollars. 

We who knew the slave system, could imagine the 
fate of the imprisoned victim, though we never heard 
what it was. The cruel captain never told us that, 
though undoubtedly he knew, for when he went back 
to Norfolk he carried the money, found the owner, 
paid him over the hundred dollars, and received back 
twenty-five as his reward ! 

Twenty-five dollars for a deed that no Modoc nor 
Apache Indian under heaven would ever have done ! 
In cold, unprovoked blood — never ! 

Sunday was the fourth and last day of our conven- 
tion, and not less than three thousand people were on 
the ground. Some estimated them at four thousand. 

I learned all the facts I have just given, from the 
captain himself, early in the day. In the afternoon, 
when the crowd was the greatest, I made a full state- 
ment of the case, in words as fitting as were then at 
my command. Of course the effect on the audience 
was intense, but dependent on the estimate which dif- 
ferent persons placed on the transaction between the 
captain and his helpless victim. 

In the tumult, the captain came to the platform, and 
not having heard my statement, he demanded, in great 
wrath, who it was that accused him of stealing ! He 
said somebody had just told him he had been accused 
of stealing. He was answered that his name had not 
been mentioned there ; and that nothing had been 
said about stealing. He said he had a right to be 
heard, and wished to be heard. We cheerfully 
accorded him the platform. He came forward, and 
in the frankest, blandest manner, stated his own case 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 355 

in his own words. When he concluded, we invited him 
to a seat on the platform, which he accepted. 

Stephen Foster spoke next. He began in quite a 
conversational tone to say : Mr. Chairman — We have 
now heard from his own mouth, what our friend had 
to say of the matter in hand. And he confirms every 
statement of Mr. Pillsbury, excepting one : he has not 
told us that he is a member in good and regular stand- 
ing of the Baptist church, as Mr. Pillsbury assured us 
he was. Now I wish to ask him if that is also true. 
He admitted that with the rest, 

Foster then opened his argument. And those who 
ever heard him can more easily imagine than I can 
describe, its power. Every eye kindled, every heart 
throbbed, with admiration, or with rage and wrath. I 
had often heard him called "a son of thunder," before. 
At that moment, he seemed Father of the seven thun- 
ders of Patmos, with all their bolts at command. He 
swayed those hundreds and thousands as prairie 
cyclones, the vast fields of corn. And yet the cap- 
tain, really on trial, listened to every word with respect 
and attention. I knew he heard a voice within, louder, 
more eloquent than the utterances of Foster, and 
whose rebuke he could not resist. 

The mob spirits now rushed for the platform, and 
with oaths and curses of stunning power, called on 
the captain to pitch him down to them. Their num- 
ber seemed legion ; and their nature and spirit like 
that other legion, known of old. The captain mildly 
replied to them that he wished none of their interfer- 
ence nor defense. He left the platform soon after, 
and moved out of the crowd, and held a long conver- 
sation with some Boston abolitionists, who had come 
down on purpose to attend the convention. And he 
very frankly told them that he had no fault to find 



356 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

whatever with our treatment of the matter, nor of 
him. Nor did he ever after complain, that we heard. 
Mr. Foster kept his feet and held the crowd at bay, 
showing our religion to be falsehood and hypocrisy, 
when a member of the orthodox church, who had just 
come from his meeting, (and it was said from the sac- 
rament), leaped like a lion on to the platform. His 
eyes flashed fury if not fire ; his teeth and fists were 
clenched, and he seemed a spirit from the pit, who 
might have been commissioned to lead its myrmidons 
in a deadly fray, for such a faith and such a church as 
his, that a dozen years before had been proved by one 
of its most eminent members, 

"The Bulwark of American Slavery." 

He asked no leave to speak ; paid no respect to pres- 
ident or rules. His first note was a shriek. " It's a 
lie ; what you say is a lie ; a damned lie ! and I'll de- 
fend the church ! " 

But he was immediately outvoiced by the yelling 
troop, who leaped like tigers at his heels, as into the 
arena, and added fearful deeds to his not less fearful 
words. 

What became of my platform companions I did not 
see. I was immediately seized, and with kicks, blows, 
and dilapidated clothing, hurled to the ground. 

There lay Captain Chase and Captain Smith, of 
Harwich, both old men, who, with many others, had 
sprung to our defense. There the two lay, their faces 
covered with blood ! They were both radical peace 
men, and only remonstrated with our remorseless as- 
sailants. But both of them would willingly have died 
in our stead, or in our defense. Truer, nobler men 
never lived. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 357- 

Havoc was soon made of our platform and what it 
contained. It was roofed over, but a temporary struc- 
ture, for officers and speakers, and aged persons who 
sought its convenience and comfort. William Wells 
Brown, one of our eloquent fugitive slave lecturers, 
was roughly seized up and pitched over back of the 
platform by the infuriated crowd, down some six or 
eight feet, and left to his fate. Mr. Foster was res- 
cued and taken away from danger — his Sunday- frock 
coat rent in twain from bottom to top, and his body 
considerably battered and bruised. 

Lucy Stone stood heroically with the rest of us, 
ready for any fate. But her serene, quiet bearing dis- 
armed the vulgar villainy of our assailants, and she 
escaped unharmed. 

I have seen many mobs and riots in my more than 
forty years of humble service in the cause of freedom 
and humanity, but I never encountered one more des- 
perate in determination, nor fiendish in spirit, than 
was that in Harwich, in the year 1848. 

And that mob was wholly, directly and undeniably 
in defense of the American church. "I'll defend the 
church," was the wild shout of the baptized 
ruffian who led the hordes, as he vaulted unbidden 
to our platform of moral and peaceful agitation and 
argument in behalf of our enslaved millions. "I'll 
defend the church," and his infuriated, yelling and 
blaspheming troop followed him, and commenced 
their fell work. 

Yes, to save the church was that dire scene enacted. 
The church that Judge Birney had proved out of her 
own mouth was the "bulwark of American slavery in 
every one of her largest, most popular denominations !" 
Church, clergy, and theological seminary, every thing, 



358 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

indeed, under ecclesiastical control. And Hon. James 
G. Birney was surely among her choicest leaders and 
brightest lights. 

To my own account of this remarkable scene, per- 
haps should be subjoined at least an excerpt of the 
official proceedings of the convention. The follow- 
ing is the close of it : 

Parker Pillsbury related a fact illustrative of the 
truth of the resolution under discussion of a sea-cap- 
tain, of Cape Cod, a member of the Baptist church. 

Immediately the captain's friends reported to him 
that he had been slandered, upon the platform, and in 
due time the captain presented himself and demanded 
why he had slandered him, on that platform ? He 
was assured that his name had not been spoken by 
any one on the platform, and that if he would wait 
for the speaker to conclude his remarks he should 
have opportunity to say all he wished. 

Accordingly, when the speaker sat down, the cap- 
tain took the platform, and stated the facts precisely as 
Pillsbury had done, so it was manifest that there was 
no slander, nor even contradiction between them. 

S. S. Foster then proceeded to dissect the transac- 
tion, as stated by the captain himself, and to find its 
moral quality. It was a process which he well under- 
stood, nor did he fail to expose the deformity of the 
deed, and cause its infamy to stand out in fearful 
blackness before that great assembly. The captain 
said he had nothing to reply, and left the platform as 
quietly as he had come upon it, saying he had not 
come there to make any disturbance. Foster then 
held up to the audience, in its true character, the re- 
ligion, under whose cherishing influence such crimes 
take root and grow, and asked who would defend 
such a church ? At that moment Captain Stillman 
Snow, a member of the Congregational church under 
the pastoral care of Rev. Cyrus Stone, (who we are 
credibly informed, went about among his people and 
advised them to stay away from our meeting), this 
Captain Snow, steaming from his own meeting, rushed 



ACTS OF AXTI-SLAVKRY APOSTLKS. 



359 



through the crowd in front of Foster, screaming at 
the top of his voice, "I'll defend the church. What 
you say is a lie, a damned lie!" His lips trembled, 
his head shook upon its socket, like a leaf rattled by 
the winter tempest, while his countenance looked as 
if the genius of rage had his dwelling there. He 
made a leap at Foster, which was a signal for his allies. 
In a twinkling, there was a rush upon the platform. 
\Y. W. Brown, a fugitive slave, was seized and thrown 
over the high back of the platform, where he was tram- 
pled on by the throng gathered there. Pillsbury, with 
torn clothes, was dragged from the platform, receiv- 
ing as he went, kicks and blows from those behind him. 
Those in front of him were harmless, awed by his 
fearless words, and undaunted look. 

Again and again, some desperate spirits, with 
clenched uplifted fists, swore vengeance and destruc- 
tion, but like the old Roman, Pillsbury calmly replied 
"strike, but hear me." While he was thus beset on 
every hand, S. S. Foster was assailed in another direc- 
tion no less violently. At the first onset he hastened 
Lucy Stone from the platform, but had scarcely time 
to turn about, when the mob, thirsting for his blood, 
closed in around him, seizing him with desperate vio- 
lence, wherever they could lay their hands upon him, 
and though they did not " part his garments among 
them," they quite divided his coat. For a few 
moments the most terrible confusion prevailed — all 
ran, without knowing whither they went — so great 
was the excitement that neither friends nor foes recog- 
nized each other. One friend would take hold of the 
arm of Foster for his protection, and another friend 
would pull him off supposing him an enemy. 

One friend would step forward to stay an . uplifted 
blow, and another friend would push him aside, sup- 
posing that he intended himself to strike. The scene 
baffled all description. At this juncture a shout was 
raised that they were riding Foster on a rail. This 
false cry was most opportune for Brown, who, during 
the whole time, had been dragged and trampled by 
the mob. Now his tormentors left him to seethe ruin 
of Foster, and thus he made his escape, rifled by these 



360 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

pious defenders of the nation's religion, of quite a 
number of his Anti-slavery Harp. Foster, who had 
been surrounded by the mob, showed no sign of fear 
or fright. The man who had never quailed in peril's 
blackest hour, was not the man now to tremble or flee. 
But the friends, apprehensive for his safety, urgently 
solicited him to leave the ground ; and when he did 
not manifest a disposition to go, they took him, with 
most unpleasant haste, outside the grove, aided by the 
mob, who were pushing terribly in the rear, and on all 
sides. 

When Pillsbury ascertained that Brown and Foster 
were safe, and that nothing more could be done, he, 
too, left, taking the public road towards the house of 
Captain Small, a well-known friend of the oppressed. 
The mobocrats, who had returned to the grove howl- 
ing and yelling in their rage and disappointment, that 
Foster was out of their clutches, when they found that 
Pillsbury was leaving, followed in hot pursuit, raising 
the dust higher than the trees, filling the air with 
demoniac screams and yells, which were heard at the 
distance of more than a mile, and frighful enough to 
make Pandemonium itself pale. They rushed on 
headlong about thirty rods, and then, though Pills- 
bury was walking only a short distance in front of them, 
for reasons best known to themselves, they turned back 
to the grove, cursing as they went, and proceeded to 
vent their rage upon the platform, which they soon 
demolished. 

While they were tearing up the planks they were 
uttering most dreadful oaths, and vowing vengeance 
on the lecturers, (should they ever make their appear- 
ance there again) who, they said, had assailed their 
laws and their religion, which they were going to de- 
fend. The world will judge what kind of laws and 
what kind of religion need such a defense. It was a 
proud day for anti-slavery, and one which the friends 
will long have occasion to remember with gratitude. 
The lecturers were not particularly disturbed until all 
had been said which they wished to say, until every 
nail was driven in the right place, and then the mob 
clenched them. They meant their violence for evil, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 361 

but God meant it for good. The dragon's teeth, which 
they were then unconsciously sowing, will yet come 
up, a host of true-hearted anti-slavery men and women, 
who will redeem Cape Cod from the false religion 
which now curses and enslaves it. Much praise is 
due to the friends, who are too numerous to mention, 
who so nobly stood by those whose lives the hungry 
mob were seeking. Nor would we fail to make suita- 
ble mention of others, who, during the day on Sunday, 
were active in exciting the mob spirit. Prominent 
among them was Henry C. Brooks, a merchant of 
Boston, of the firm of Crowell & Brooks, 38 Commer- 
cial street, son of Obed Brooks, Esq., of Harwich. 

The good effect of the mob is already manifest in 
the increased activity and interest of the friends on 
the Cape, whose liberal contributions to the cause 
have been nearly doubled, and who see new reasons 
for girding themselves to more vigorous effort in be- 
half of human freedom. 

ZEBINA Small, P resin' rut. 

Charles Stearns, 

Lucy Stone, 

Secretaries. 

Only time, space and patience of readers prevent 
insertion of the whole of the able report of the secre- 
taries of that phenomenal convention. Most of the 
names of the rioters mentioned in the extract given 
are suppressed. 

No other mob or riot will be described in this work. 
Such as are given are but representative of many, very 
many ; some less destructive to property and harmful 
to person, and some others in those respects a great 
deal worse. 

And now, wondrous to tell, with such records, the 
church and clergy claim and boast that they abolished 
slavery ! The real, everlasting truth is, we had almost 
to abolish the church before we could reach the dread- 
ful institution at all. We divided, if we did not de- 
stroy. Not to speak of the General Assembly of the 



362 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Presbyterian church at all, we did divide and even 
subdivided the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. The slavery question certainly 
produced rupture in the American Board of Foreign 
Missions, the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions and 
the American Tract Society, as has been, or as will 
be shown. If it be said that it was their own internal 
heat that was consuming them, the answer would be 
it was not light and fire from heaven, the divine illum- 
ination of the Holy Ghost, or their differences would 
not have been so easily reconciled by surrendering the 
whole ground to the enemy ; the Northern Methodist 
Conference retaining thousands of slave-holders and 
tens of thousands of slaves, and six of the very largest 
of the slave states, besides Delaware and Maryland. 
The two missionary boards and tract society threat- 
ened at one time some separation or purification, but 
to what purpose will be made to appear 

The institution at Oberlin, Ohio, was first to attempt 
a new standard for freedom in education and religion, 
irrespective of sex, complexion or race, with a pro- 
fessedly anti-slavery board of teachers and directors. 
But Oberlin was at once proscribed by the great bodies 
of ministers and churches, whose fellowship extended 
to the south. And even Oberlin never so much as 
contemplated any separation from our unhallowed 
union with slave-holders. Instead of it, under an 
assumed idea or pretence that the constitution was 
anti-slavery and not pro-slavery, an assumption that 
no president, congress nor supreme court nor state 
legislature nor court ever believed for an hour, Ober- 
lin continued loyal to the government, swore by itself 
or elected rulers to support the constitution, and then 
kept the oath or made a virtue of perjury and violated 
it by refusing to return the fugitive slave. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 363 

And scarcely had the institution reached respecta- 
bility in the estimation of more declared pro-slavery 
ecclesiastical associations, north and south, before the 
Infinite Patience was exhausted, and with the bolts of 
eternal justice stove down our already blood-besmeared 
idol, and buried it beneath the untimely graves of half 
a million men slain in a thousand battles, their mas- 
sacred commander-in-chief and president of the nation 
with his own heart's blood, sealing the sacrifice ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SOME ACTS OF THE PRO-SLAVERY APOSTLES— PERSONAL 
ENCOUNTER WITH THE HENNIKER. N. H., CHURCH AND 
SUFFOLK, MASS., ASSOCIATION OF MINISTERS— REV. DR. 
BACON AND SON ON SLAVERY AND WHO ABOLISHED IT 
—THE CHURCH AND CLERGY IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 

=1 

It is time to draw this work to a close. It was un- 
dertaken with extreme reluctance at the earnest solici- 
tation of those whose wishes it is my delight to obey, 
even at any cost of personal sacrifice of my latest 
years, only if the cause of truth and the demands of 
history be also subserved. And strict truth and jus- 
tice to everybody concerned, has been, and shall be to 
the end, my one constant study and care. 

The next chapter may be called " Acts of the Pro- 
Slavery Apostles," and will have respect mainly to the 
connection of the church and c.ergy of the country 
with the slave system. Their hostility to the anti- 
slavery enterprise was not wakenec into fierce and 
general opposition till slavery was not only declared a 
sin ; such sin as that no slave-holder could be a chris- 
tian, nor worthy to be fellowshipped as such, whether 
south or north. The abolitionists insisted that every 
church and pulpit dictating terms of sacramental com- 
munion should hold the man-steaier as just so much 
greater criminal than the felon of the sheep-fold, as 
a man is better than a sheep, remembering who He was 
that asked, " How much better is a man than a sheep ?" 
And our warrant for this judgment came from the 
very highest evangelical authority the church could 
furnish. Long before slavery hau reached the pro- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 365 

portions of 1834, or developed half its prospective 
cruelties, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
church had officially and authoritively taught, citing 
as their scripture basis, the first epistle of Timothy, 
first chapter, ninth and tenth verses : " The law is 
made for manstealers. This crime among the Jews 
exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment. 
Exodus xxi, 16 ; and the apostle classes them with 
sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its 
original import, comprehends all who are concerned 
in bringing any of the human race into slavery, or' in 
retaining them in it. Stealers of men are all those 
who bring off slaves or freemen, and keep, sell, or 
buy them. To steal a freeman, says Grotius, is the 
highest kind of theft. In other instances we only steal 
human property, but when we steal or retain men in 
slavery, we seize those who, in common with ourselves, 
are constituted, by the original grants, lords of the 
earth." 

In 1791, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., declared 
and published this : ' 

" To hold any man in slavery, is to be every day 
guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing. 
Fifty years from this time (1791) it will be as shame- 
ful for a man to hold a slave as to be guilty of com- 
mon theft or •obbery." And John Wesley this : 
" What I have said to slave-traders equally concerns 
all slave-holders of whatever rank and degree ; seeing 
men-buyers arc exactly on a level with men-stealers J 
Indeed, you say, 'I pay honestly for my goods ; and I 
am not concerned to know how they are come by.' 
Nay, but you are ; you are deeply concerned to know 
they are honestly come by ; otherwise you are par- 
taker with a thief, ? id are not a jot honester than he. 
But you know they are not honestly come by ; yo u 



366 ACTS OF A&TI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

know they are procured by means nothing near so inno- 
cent as picking pockets, house-breaking, or robbery upon 
the highway. You know they are procured by a delib- 
erate species of more complicated villainy, of fraud, 
robbery, mid murder than was ever practiced by Mo- 
homedans or Pagans. In particular by murderers of 
all kinds ; by the blood of the innocent poured out 
like water. Now, it is your money that pays the 
African butcher. You, therefore, are guilty, princi- 
pally, of all these frauds, robberies and murders." 

With abundance more of similar character and from 
the same high and representative sources, so that the 
abolitionists in their position and demand were only 
holding the church and pulpit to their own once de- 
clared and published principles on slavery, as well as 
always on every other acknowledged sin. 

But every one of the great popular denominations 
apostalized as slavery grew in numbers of its victims 
and in the terrible crimes, cruelties, tortures and tor- 
ments, incident to the system, and became directly 
implicated, if not indeed the very chief of sinners, 
themselves. 

What then could true christian abolitionists do, 
whether ministers or church members, but come out 
of such fellowship, to avoid the guilt of partaking in 
the sin ? Nothing in all scripture was more sublimely 
emphatic than the apocalvptic command, " Come out 
of her my people, that ye be not partakers in her sins, 
and that ye receive not of her plagues." And among 
the sins charged in that blood-guilty communion 
was, that its "merchandize" was "in staves and souls 
of men. 7 ' 

Some of those who composed the associations, who 
were known as " Come-outers," framed a course of 
proceedure for themselves, and rather excommunica- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 367 

ted the churches than came out from them. To them 
the church was a principle, an idea, not a corporation 
or organization, voting members in or out by majori- 
ties, and in many of the sects forbidding women to 
vote at all on any question, though generally a major- 
ity, and frequently a large majority of the member- 
ship. To such Come-outers the visible church of the 
New Testament was Christianity made visible in the 
life and character, whether of one or more, no matter 
how many, only let purity go before peace and liberty 
before charity. Conservatives held that " peaceful 
error was better than boisterous truth." But the other 
answered " Nay, not so. Peace if possible, but truth 
and right at whatever cost." 

Our church in Henniker refused any forward step. 
Several withdrew from it altogether when a Kentucky 
slave-holder was invited to preach in the pulpit on 
Sunday, and administer the sacramental supper. Once 
when visiting in town a meeting was appointed for 
him all day on Saturday, in hope that two successive 
days of his preaching might produce a religious awak- 
ening and possibly a revival. No such result, however, 
followed. But an anti-slavery society was formed in 
the town, that did good and effective work, some join- 
ing from all the churches. 

After absenting myself from the communion service 
a number of years, engaged constantly in the anti- 
slavery apostleship, I sent a letter to the church, ex- 
communicating it from my christian regard and fellow- 
ship until it should repent of the sins and shames of 
slave-holding and bring forth fruits meet for repen- 
tance. No notice was taken of me nor my letter till 
in the autumn of 1846. Then, with a new pastor, 
who was also clerk of the church, an official order was 
sent me, signed and countersigned by the clerk, sum- 



368 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

moning me to appear, on a given day, to answer to 
the charge, not of absence from worship and com- 
munion table, but of denying the inspiration of the 
Bible. 

I had labored with the church publicly and privately 
for years on the guilt and danger of slave-holding, or of 
recognizing as christians or christian ministers the 
southern slave-breeders or slave-holders, before send- 
ing my letter of solemn excommunication. But no 
similar step, nor any steps, had been taken towards 
me, by the church or pastor, till the formal call, 
couched in quite legal phrase, to come into court and 
plead guilty or not guilty, to a charge foreign as pos- 
sible from the question, which for years had been in 
agitation between us. My only answer was the fol- 
lowing letter, forwarded without unnecessary delay, to 
the minister, who was also clerk of the church : 

Milford, N. H., Oct. 15, 1846. 

Friend Eden B. Foster — Yours of September 26th 
was duly received. In reply I would only say that I 
am not aware of the existence of any Congregational 
church in Henniker. Certainly none of which I am a 
member. 

Four or five years ago there was an organization in 
that town known by that name, myself belonging to it. 
But that body I excommunicated for its grossly immoral 
character. 

Since then the individuals comprising it, excepting a 
very few who have repented, have been to me as 
"heathen men and publicans," and so far as their 
conduct and their influence on the community are to 
be seen, my estimate of them must be pronounced 
eminently just. 

I am still laboring for their reformation, and shall 
rejoice to see signs of penitence ; and to forgive with 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 369 

all forbearance and charity so soon as I see hope of 
genuine repentance and fruits meet for repentance. I 
know of no other business which concerns me and the 
persons who once composed, with myself, the Con- 
gregational church in Henniker, and hasten to sub- 
scribe Sincerely yours, 

Parker Pillsbury. 

What action was taken on this letter, if any, I never 
knew. If excommunication was voted, or other steps 
taken, no copy or report was ever sent me, and so 
there the matter rested. 

But a controversy with the ministry, still more 
grave, yet remained. I was licensed to preach in 
Boston by the Suffolk north association of divines, 
after a pretty severe doctrinal examination, my certifi- 
cate being signed by Dr. Curtis, president, and Dr. War- 
ren Fay, secretary of the association, both then minis- 
ters in Charlestown. My preaching was mainly in 
New Hampshire and within the bounds of the Hop- 
kinton association. Only for remembering them that 
were in bonds as bound with them, according to the 
dictates of my own conscience and interpretation of 
the divine will, I gave great offense to members of 
the association. But instead of calling on me in any 
capacity, official or private, they made complaint to 
the Suffolk association that granted my license. This 
led to correspondence between that body and myself, 
of which the following letters are all that concern 
either history or the present. It will be observed by 
dates of letters, that all this was some years before 
my final encounter with the minister and people at 
Henniker. This whole affair to-day may seem trivial ; 
but to myself and wife, and other near and dear 
friends, there was mighty meaning in every step, as 
one after another had to be taken. 



37° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The summons before the Suffolk association was as. 
below : 

Malden Mass., Feb. 3, 1841. 
Mr. Parker Pillsbury : 

Dear Brother — At a meeting of the Suffolk north 
association, held in Charlestown, Feb, 2d, 1841, the 
following preamble and vote were unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas, Certain communications have been re- 
ceived by this association, and are now on file, from 
the Hopkinton association, of New Hampshire, and 
Mr. Parker Pillsbury, a licentiate of this body, relative 
to charges preferred by the Hopkinton association 
against Mr. Pillsbury. Therefore 

Voted, That the case be assigned for consideration 
and final action, to a meeting of this association, to 
be held in Boston, at the house of Mr. Blagdon, on 
Tuesday, the twenty-third day of the present month, 
at nine o'clock, a. m., when the parties may be fully 
heard ; and that a copy of this vote be communicated 
by the scribe, both to the Hopkinton association and 
to Mr. Pillsbury. 

A true copy of record. 

[Attest] A. W. McClure, Scribe. 

To this arraignment, I immediately responded, to 
the following effect : 

Concord, N. H., Feb. 20, 1841. 
To the Suffolk North Association of Congregational 

Ministers in Massachusetts : 

Brethren — Your communication of the third in- 
stant was duly received. By it I learn that you have 
appointed a time and place for consideration of 
charges preferred against me by the Hopkinton, N. 
H., association of ministers, and for "final action " on 
the same. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 37 1 

On the course of the Suffolk association in this 
matter, I wish to be indulged in a few remarks. 

In the first place, I was not a little surprised at your 
disposition to hasten the final action of a case so im- 
portant to me and the parties concerned. In an ''ex- 
tra official " note, appended to your communication, 
your secretary says, "They [the association] thought 
it their duty to give you the opportunity to substan- 
tiate your allegations against the ministers of your 
region, pn the truth of which allegations, you rely for 
defense against the charges filed against you by the 
Hopkinton association.,' 

Now, you must have been aware that to go from 
town to town over any considerable part of the state, 
summon witnesses and assemble them at Boston, or to 
take affidavits and transmit them to the place of meet- 
ing, would be a work of much time and labor. You 
must also have been aware that in no other way could 
I attempt a defense. Had I not, then, good reason 
to be surprised that your communication informing 
me that " final action " was to be had on my cause on 
the twenty-third of February, was not mailed in Mai- 
den, Mass., till the fourth of the same month ? Is 
such haste as this common in the courts of law ? 

But let me say farther, no charges as yet, have been 
specified against me. You say in your former com- 
munication that the complaint of the Hopkinton as- 
sociation is founded on an article from my pen, pub- 
lished in the Herald of Freedom, '• printed at Concord, 
N. H., October 2d, 1840, containing charges against 
the clergy that are highly slanderous and unchristian." 
This is the indictment, and the whole of it. 

Now, does the Suffolk association expect me to as- 
semble witnesses at Boston, to prove every position in 



372 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

that letter touching the clergy ? If not, why have 
they not specified the charges that are " highly slander- 
ous and unchristian ? " 

But one word in relation to the general manner of 
procedure. We have heard much of late in this state 
of " Congregational usage ; " and of " ecclesiastical 
usage ; " and of "ministerial usage." But what shall 
I call that " usage " which (aside from considerations 
already noticed), permits a clerical body, to which I 
do not, never did, and never shall belong, and to 
which I am in no way, whatever, responsible, beyond 
that general relation which all christians bear to one 
another, to pursue a course towards one whom they do 
not regard as a brother in the ministry, such as the 
Hopkinton association have pursued toward me ? Had 
they no individual duty to discharge to me alone ? 
Or, had the association, in its organized capacity, 
none? Could they never, as individuals, nor collec- 
tively, administer one word of instruction, rebuke, nor 
correction ? When they saw me wandering out of the 
way, was there no one venerable from age or experi- 
ence, to warn my inexperienced feet ? Or, could not 
the body together give me one word of caution ? 
Why should they, at the very outset, adopt a proced- 
ure which they knew must either condemn and banish 
me unheard, or subject me to such labor and expense 
for trial as I am utterly unable to meet ? 

But they acted as they saw fit ; nor am I surprised 
nor grieved : 1 had no right nor reason to expect 
otherwise of a body of men, who, when a brother came 
before them with a complaint against one of their own 
number, to sustain which complaint, some six or eight 
of the best members of his own church stood ready, 
could deliberately vote in a moment after the presenta- 
tion, to return it to its author, unread and unopened !. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 373 

I have the best of evidence to show that the clergy, as 
a body, are determined to sustain each other in the 
crusade against the advocates of the rights of our 
enslaved fellow men. No unimportant part of that 
evidence is the fact that the Suffolk North Associa- 
tion have signified their intention to take "final action" 
on the complaint of the Hopkinton Association against 
me, irrespective of the manner or character of that 
complaint in three weeks after the determination was 
formed, and information of it transmitted to the par- 
ties concerned. I need not repeat here what has 
already been intimated, that you and the Hopkinton 
Association also must be aware of the utter impossi- 
bility for me to avail myself of the testimony requisite 
to a fair and full representation of the case, in so short 
a time. 

But I ask for nO continuance ; I am not anxious to 
prove to you that the great body of the clergy of this 
state are, and have been, deadly hostile to anything 
like efficient action for the overthrow of slavery. I 
deem it more important to establish that fact among 
those who support them ; I mean their pastoral 
charges. And I am glad to know that the happiest 
success attends my labors, and those of my faithful 
coadjutors in the work. 

You will not therefore be surprised to learn that I 
do not feel called upon to appear before you on the 
day you have specified for a hearing of my case. I 
might well say,in the words of Nehemiah to his adver- 
saries, " I am doing a great work, so that I cannot 
come down. Why should the work cease while I 
leave it and come down to you ? " I should gain little, 
even could I do all that could be wished. The same 



374 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

work would still have to be done among the people 
which is required now, and by the same instrumental- 
ity, and through the same opposition. 

I need not tell you that I have been compelled to 
excommunicate from my fellowship, most of the min- 
isters of our land for the sin of conniving at American 
slavery ; I do not regard them as christians, nor 
christian ministers. I regret to be compelled to add 
that even the Suffolk North Association of Ministers, 
are no exception ; nor can I recognize them as vested 
with any authority to decide who shall, or shall not 
be licensed to preach the gospel. You have shown 
yourselves in various ways, to be the friends of the 
southern oppressor, rather than of the opprest. Not 
many of you have even established the monthly con- 
cert of prayer for the enslaved, to intercede with God 
on their behalf. You have done well for the heathen 
abroad, perhaps, but have neglected three millions of 
heathen at the doors of your own sanctuaries. Most 
of you oppose directly, the agitation of the subject of 
slavery, in any manner, among your people. You are 
in full fellowship and communion with the slave-hold- 
ing ministers at the south, and their more guilty 
apologists at the north. For ten years we have been 
laboring to awaken an interest in the churches in 
behalf of the bleeding slave. Labor enough has been 
done in New England to have made every church, as 
a church, the inflexible foe of oppression, as it exists 
at the south, had it noti>een for the mighty opposition 
that has been constantly thrown in the way by the 
pulpit. It has come to be a mere truism that the 
firmest pillars of the bloody Moloch are the professed 
ministers of Jesus Christ ; and in no part of these 
states have those ministers shown themselves more 
subservient to the will of slave-breeding and slave- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 375 

holding ministers and others, than in Boston and 
vicinity. With your blood-stained feet on the necks 
of three millions of your prostrate brethren, you are 
deliberately talking of "censure" and " resumption" of 
my "license" because I have espoused faithfully their 
cause ! 

Recreant should I be to the interests of my Redeem- 
er's kingdom, to recognize such men as ministers of 
Christ. I know full well how the warning will be 
received ; but still I warn you to repent. God has a 
controversy with you on this awful sin of enslaving 
millions of immortal beings as yourselves, compelling 
them into absolute heathenism, concubinage, adultery; 
robbing them of everything, wives, children, all the 
endearing relations of life, manhood, womanhood, 
with all else' only to gratify the cupidity of an 
unrighteous and cruel master-hood. Your Christianity 
has less of humanity in it than has the religion of the 
Seminole savage! he befriends the slave and wel- 
comes him to his wigwam : you, or most of you, and 
multitudes under your pastoral charge, are deaf as 
adders to his woes. Search the heathen world, ancient 
and modern ; you shall look in vain for a system of 
greater abominations, more horrible cruelties than 
American slavery ; and yet you baptise and sanctify it, 
and admit it to full sacramental communion and 
fellowship. 

The ancient Romans with hearts of steel, had their 
god of war ; the ferocious Vandal had his god of 
vengeance ; but none of their high places ever shewed 
an altar to the fell demon of slavery. Never did the 
Nine Sisters hold fond dalliance with a fiend so foul ; 
never was Apollo's golden lyre tuned to his praise ; 
never did the wild harp of northern minstrelsy in all 
its long buried melodies, indite one hymn to the blood- 



376 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

swollen vampire. Never was altar reared to such 
divinity till the christian slave chain was forged, and 
the christian coffle formed ; till torturing evangelical 
thumb-screws were invented, and human flesh had 
hissed and broiled beneath the red-hot branding iron, 
and the one eternal God, in the person of his chil- 
dren, his own image and likeness,, was bought and 
sold in the shambles with the beasts that perish ! 

And now you, grave and venerable ministers, 
demand of me to fall down and reverence and wor- 
ship your blood-besmeared idol, on pain of "censure," 
or resumption of the license with which you invested 
me as a preacher of the gospel ; and as logical con- 
sequence, expulsion from the church on earth, and the 
society of the redeemed in heaven ! Brethren, you 
know you can not deny what I say. 

For three hundred years, your Christianity has been 
tearing at the vitals of Africa, like vultures, snatching 
away from her bosom her poor sons and daughters in 
myriads, to supply the christian slave-markets of this 
and other nations. Her wailings have been borne on 
the trade-winds, on all the winds, to the ends of the 
earth. And yet to this hour, doctors of divinity dare 
doubt, dare openly deny that slavery is sin ! and even 
such as feign to believe it sin, make themselves, by a 
strange silence or open connivance, more guilty, if 
possible, or certainly more dangerous, than those who 
deny or doubt. 

I repeat my denial that what is taught and pro- 
fessed by the great body of clergy in this nation as 
Christianity is not Christianity at all. I confine myself 
inth is letter wholly to slavery. To American chattel 
slavery. There are other accounts to be considered 
when slavery is overthrown. Let your intimated 

censure " and resumption of ''license" be carried 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 377 

into full execution. I shall still preach the gospel of 
Christ, and by his grace wash my hands from all par- 
ticipation in your gu.lt on the awful crimes and cruel- 
ties of slavery, and in the last day be a swift witness 
against you, unless you repent. 

Brethren, regard this letter as my solemn eoccommuni. 
cation of you, and my work with you is done 

I go now to the lost sheep on the mountains to un- 
o d to them t he treasures of the gospel. And I shall 
ell them, as I have done before, except your righ- 
teousness exceed the righteousness of most of the pro- 
fessed ministers of Christ around you, you can in no 
case enter mto the kingdom of heaven. And when' 
they, and you, and I, stand at the tribunal of God 
with assembled worlds, the down-trodden and sorrow- 
stricken slave in the vast congregation, it shall be 
known who has served God and who has not 4 nd 
justice shall be meted out to us all. 

Yours, waiting that great event, 
. Parker Pillsbury. 

At a subsequent meeting of the Suffolk North As- 
sociation my "license" was resumed, as had been 
before intimated and threatened. But my higher 
more divine commission became to me from that time 
more and more sacred and important. Under it I 
have spoken the words of truth, righteousness and 
freedom for more than forty years, to multitudes of 
men women and children in both the hemispheres, and 
as 1 humbly hope and trust, not all in vain. 

The first open, direct arraignment of the American ' 
church and clergy as the guilty accomplices, north and 
south, in all the crimes and cruelties, the sins and 
shames of slavery, was a little pamphlet, entitled, 
I he American Churches the Bulwarks of American 
Slavery. It was written by an American, though first 



37 8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

published in England in 1840. The last of similar 
mport and purpose, was a larger work, published in 
1847, entitled, "The Church as it is; 1 he Forlorn 

Hope of Slavery." 

The peculiarity of both these publications was, that 
the persons and parties whose character and conduct 
were to be considered, furnished all the testimony 
themselves, and the evidence was all direct, with no 
cross question nor quibble of any description, from 
the other side, so whatever conclusion might be 
reached, it would be wholly through their own words 
and works, as by themselves published to the world. 

Since slavery was abolished, the clergy, as was al- 
ways predicted they would, have claimed it as the 
result of their prayers, preaching and votes. But it 
was never expected that they or their children would 
boldly declare through pulpit and press, as well as by 
lips and lungs, that the abolitionists, even Garrison, 
did more harm than good; that "the final extinction 
of slavery was accomplished in pursuance of princi- 
ples which Garrison abhorred, and by measures which 
he denounced;" that "he had but a heterogeneous 
following, charged with all the fanaticism of the 
times- and confined mostly to eastern Massachusetts 
and northern New England ; " a "motley party ; was 
only captain of a corporal's guard ;" << his main prin- 
ciples were, down with the constitution, dissolve the 
union, denounce the churches and ministers, renounce 
the orthodox belief in the Bible ; a man of headlong 
force, erratic, short-sighted and narrow thought not 
of cleansing, but of crushing the temple of liberty, 
which would have made slavery perpetual and extin- 
guished forever all hope of an American nation . 

A semi-centennial discourse, delivered in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, in April, 1881, contains most of these quota- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 379 

tions ; and Rev. A. T. Rankin, in some published 
essays, the present year, supplies part of the remain- 
der. But it remained for Leonard Woolsey Bacon, 
son of the late Dr. Leonard Bacon, of Connecticut, 
to print such a life-size portrait of Garrison as will be 
here subjoined. It is in a biographical sketch of his 
father, in a popular magazine. Dr. Bacon's anti-sla- 
very was worthy such a son, and to be by him cele- 
brated in the manner it is in the notice furnished the 
Century. It received many well-deserved scathings 
when it appeared, and as anti-slavery had nothing to 
fear from the father, so neither has the memory or 
good name of Garrison anything to dread from the 
contemptuous caricatures of the son. Both may be 
safely trusted to history and to posterity. But here is 
the Woolsey Bacon portrait : 

In almost any assembly of crotchety people — long- 
haired men and short-haired women — over a scheme 
for the reconstruction of the solar system, you will 
hear the appeal to " Remember Garrison, how he be- 
gan with nothing and a printing-press against the 
whole nation and the whole church, and how at last 
he succeeded in bringing everybody over to his side." 
It is really a matter of interest to public morals that 
the ingenuous youth of America should know the truth 
of this matter — that Mr. Garrison and his society 
never succeeded in anything ; that his one distinctive 
dogma, that slave-holding is always and everywhere a 
sin, was never accepted to any considerable extent 
outside of the little ring of his personal adherents ; 
that his vocabulary, which had no word but man- 

stealer and pirate for the legal guardian of a decrepit 

24 



380 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

negro, or for one hofcling a family of slaves in transit 
for a free state, with intent to emancipate them, never 
became part of the American dictionary ; that the 
sophistry with which he spent a lifetime in trying to 
confuse plain distinctions had little effect except to 
give acrimony and plausibility to the defense of sla- 
very ; and that the final extinction of slavery was ac- 
complished in pursuance of principles which he ab- 
horred, by measures which he denounced, and under 
the leadership of men like Leonard Bacon, in litera- 
ture and the church, and Abraham Lincoln in politics, 
who had been the objects of his incessant and calum- 
nious vituperation. 

And yet this bold calumniator has the grace to ad- 
mit that " the brunt of my [his] father's arguments 
in the earlier stages of the slavery controversy, was 
directed more against the so-called abolitionists than 
against the advocates of slavery." Till the firing on 
Fort Sumter the abolitionists never knew that " the 
brunt of Dr. Bacon's arguments was ever changed in 
its direction," to any important purpose, to either side. 
Leonard Woolsey Bacon graciously thinks, however, 
that Garrison, now that slavery is abolished, may " be 
forgiven the great harm he did for the sake of the 
little good." 

But all this aside from the main question in hand. The 
clergy to-day would have the world believe they were 
always opposed to slavery, and sought its overthrow. 
They were opposed to slavery just as was the govern- 
ment. No more ; no less. And if the church and 
government were against slavery, why did they not 
put it out of existence ? How could it have stood 
against them ? If they were opposed to slavery why 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 381 

were Louisiana and Florida bought for its extension ? 
Why was Mexico robbed of Texas after a four years' 
bloody and cruel, and fearfully unjust war on our part, 
only to reinstate slavery where Roman Catholicism 
a few years before had abolished it, as it hoped, for- 
ever ? 

Whatever of slave-breeding, or slave-holding, or 
slave-trading abroad, or slave-hunting at home the 
government authorized and supported, the church 
sanctioned and sanctified. So also of slavery exten- 
sion. The clergy actually clamored for chaplaincies 
in the atrocious Mexican war, knowing well its origin 
and objects. The religious press, north and south, 
shouted for the war, irrespective of denominational 
differences. The Presbyterian Herald asked its read- 
ers," Do you pray for the Mexicans?" and answered : 

There are good reasons why you should. They 
have souls like other men. Is not this overlooked ? 
They are not wild beasts, though like them. Why 
pray for a Hindoo or a Hottentot ? Because he 
has a soul of infinite value, but exposed to eternal 
death. So has every Mexican. Because they are all 
Papists. And will you pray for the conversion of 
Romanism around you, and not for the conversion of 
that one thousand miles off ? 

The pope decreed the abolition of slavery in Mex- 
ico in 1829, " for the glory of God and to distinguish 
mankind from the brute creation." Good reason why 
slave-holding Presbyterians should "pray for the con- 
version of Mexicans as well as for Hindoos and Hot- 
tentots." But the Presbyterian Herald had another 
reason for praying for the Mexicans, verily this : 

They are our enemies. This is one of the strongest 
reasons. Does not the Savior so teach ? Matthew 
v ; 44. This does not refer to private enemies only 
—it extends to public foes also. It may be your duty 
to fight them, to preserve the life and the liberty of 



382 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

our countrymen — strictly in the defensive. But does 
that duty to our country exempt us from the other 
duty to them ? Fighting and praying can go together. 
Jesus was a lion, yet a lamb — so his disciples. 

The Protestant Telegraph viewed the war and its 
results, thus hopefully : 

I have no fellowship with war, and deeply regret 
our present relations with our sister republic, Mexico ; 
yet I cannot but hope for some good from the conflict, 
and that good is, the entrance of the Protestant religion 
into the Mexican states. The Roman Catholic religion 
is now the religion of that nation ; none other is tol- 
erated ; but it is utterly impossible that republican 
institutions can exist and flourish in connection with 
Romanism. The immense wealth of the churches in 
Mexico, now hoarded up in idolatrous images of silver 
and gold, (a petticoat of the Virgin Mary, estimated 
at half a million,) may be distributed among the 
people as a consequence of this conflict, or be laid out 
in the establishment of schools, in internal improve- 
ments, in efforts of various kinds, to exalt the people. 
■"Great is the Diana of the Ephesians," is now the cry, 
but it may soon give place to "Great is the Lord our 
God." 

But what shall be said of this from so eminent a 
Divine, as Rev. Joel Parker, D. D., in a sermon 
preached, and then published in the Christian 
Observer ? 

I was not an advocate for the present administration. 
I cast my vote for the opposing candidates, and my 
judgment is, that if they had been elected, the Mexi- 
can war would have been avoided, and the honor of 
the country as well preserved as at present. But our 
present chief magistrate was duly elected. He is not 
the president of the democratic party ; he is the presi- 
dent of the nation ; he is my president and your 
president, and we are bound to treat him with the 
same deferential respect as if he had been the very 
man of our choice. Moreover, are we absolutely cer- 
tain that he is not really laying a foundation for a 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 383 

claim on our gratitude in this very matter of the 
Mexican war ? For one, I am free to confess that 1 
am not so well informed in respect to our relations 
with Mexico, as to be sure that our executive eould 
have wisely avoided this collision. Perhaps I am as 
well acquainted with the subject as the majority of my 
hearers, yet I have no doubt that a bare three month's 
devoted to an investigation of our past and present 
relations with Mexico, would secure to me tenfold the 
amount of intelligence which I at present possess in 
relation to the subject; and if it were left for me to 
decide, whether that course of policy should be pur- 
sued which has involved us in war, I should not, with 
my present limited knowledge, dare to assume the 
responsibility of deciding against it ! 

Or this in the New England Puritan, from its 
editor, Rev. Parsons Cooke, D. D. 

The fact that this nation is earnestly engaged in 
war with a neighboring nation, seems to be little real- 
ized by the mass of the people, and especially by 
christian people, who ought to take a deep interest in 
the subject. But what shall christians do in the case? 
The war will not be brought to a close the sooner by 
bringing christian influence into antagonism with any 
legal measures for prosecuting the war. We are in 
the war by the acts of our government, and shall get out 
of it, if we ever do, by the acts of the government and 
none the sooner for any attempts to embarrass that 
action. Our rulers have taken the responsibility of this 
plunge, and we, in the exercise of a religious influence, 
are not called upon either to justify or resist their action. 
As citizens exercising the political franchise, at the 
proper time, we with the rest, must make our opinions 
felt, touching such important measures. But now the 
simple question is, what can we do as christians, to 
secure the favor of Providence and avert the storm ? 

The Rev. Evan Stevenson, editor of a monthly 
magazine in Georgetown, Kentucky, hungered after 
the righteousness of such a war as keenly as this 
discloses : 



384 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

While the war continues, we cannot and will not dis- 
cuss the question of slavery, as we honestly feel more 
like discussing roast beef and yams, or, if our service 
is required, national rights, with our sword on the Rio 
Grande. We entreat our correspondents that they 
forward to us for publication no religious controversies 
pending this conflict with Mexico. Let us drop our 
denominational prejudices, "Fight the good fight of 
faith, and lay hold upon eternal life." 

Only two more of these excerpts, and one of them 
very brief. The Christian Observer, a new-school 
Presbyterian organ, of first-class, spoke in this tone, 
and at such length, by a correspondent : 

Mexico is open ! — Mexico is open to christian, as 
well as commercial enterprise. Our countrymen 
are protected in the prosecution of their lawful busi- 
ness, and so would our citizens be in the sale or gra- 
tuitous circulation of Spanish Bibles, tracts and bound 
volumes. These books are on the shelves of our de- 
positories. Why should they remain there, when now 
they may be placed in the hands of the population at 
Matamoras, Monterey, Tampico, Vera Cruz, Jalapa, 
Perote, Puebla, etc., etc.? Will those whose obliga- 
tions bind them to this circulation, answer this ques- 
tion ? The sword has opened the way. Our officers 
and soldiers themselves need all the kindly influences 
we can exert on them. They will gratefully receive 
these publications, and bless their benefactors. Shall 
we withhold them from the men who fight the battles 
of the country I Many of the officers and soldiers, par- 
ticularly among the volunteers, are church members, and 
will reioice in such an enterprise. Colporteurs can be 
found on the ground. Discharged volunteers will re- 
main, and instead of shooting balls, will love to do 
good, and communicate to the millions perishing 
around them, the word of life. What is my duty as 
an American christian ? Let the hundreds of thou- 
sands of christian freemen in our land answer that 
question. If Captain Bragg gave " a little more 
grape," and turned the victory, why may not the sons of 
peace and righteousness follow up that victory, with all 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 385 

those missiles and weapons which are mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strongholds ? It must 
be done. // is the great movement of the present cen- 
tury. Who will lead the advance ? j. c. s. 

And this one more, from the Nashville, Tennessee, 
Union : 

"At a Missionary meeting, held in the Methodist 
church, on Monday night, funds were raised for mak- 
ing General Taylor, Colonel Campbell, Colonel An- 
derson, Captain Cheatham, and Captain Foster, life- 
members of the Conference Missionary society. These 
compliments will be duly appreciated by the brave 
officers, who are winning laurels on the field of battle." 

So did the government and the governing part and 
power of the church, cooperate in fighting and robbing 
to extend, as well as support slavery. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ACTS OF PRO-SLAVERY APOSTLES-GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH— AMERICAN BOARD 
OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS — THE 
BAPTIST CHURCH— METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH — 
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH — CAMPBELLITES — 
AMERICAN BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETIES— FUGITIVE 
SLAVE LAW. 

A long chapter this may be, though it is last but 
one, and that one, readers may be glad to know, will 
not be long. The charges against the church and 
clergy may be sweeping and severe. All that is now 
proposed is to submit their own recorded, printed, 
published testimony in support of them. In scripture 
phrase, "By their own words shall they be justified, 
or condemned." 

For convenience, the great representative ecclesias- 
tical bodies will be considered separately, beginning 
with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church. 
Notwithstanding its powerful testimony against sla- 
very, so late as 1818, as has been shown, it grew to be 
one of the boldest blasphemers against the holy spirit 
of freedom the world has produced. And the New- 
school assembly, after the memorable separation into 
old and new schools, became quite as unscrupulous as 
the other. Though slavery had little or nothing to do 
in dividing the body, the new school was much the 
strongest in the northern states. 

In the new-school general assembly, in 1840, a mo- 
tion was made, by a member, on the subject of sla- 
very, when Rev. Dr. Cox, of Brooklyn, immediately 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 387 

moved its indefinite postponement. On the motion 
being carried, he exultingly exclaimed : "Our Vesu- 
vius is capped safely for three years," that being the 
time for the next meeting. And Judge Birney assures 
us that Dr. Cox was at the first an abolitionist. 

The clergy of the old-school were even more de- 
monstrative in opposition to anything like hostility to 
the "peculiar institution." When the Richmond min- 
isters held a meeting, expressly to wash their hands 
clean before all the world, of any anti-slavery stain, 
Dr. William L. Plummer was absent ; but on his re- 
turn, he made haste to assure his acceptance and ap- 
proval of the action taken, by a letter to the committee 
of correspondence, from which these are extracts : 

" I have carefully watched this matter from its ear- 
liest existence, and everything I have seen or heard of 
its character, both from its patrons and its enemies, 
has confirmed me beyond repentance, in the belief, 
that, let the character of abolitionists be what it 
may in the sight of the judge of all the earth, this is 
the most meddlesome, impudent, reckless, fierce, and 
wicked excitement I ever saw. 

" If abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it 
is but fair that they should receive the first warming 
at the fire. 

"Abolitionists are like infidels, wholly unaddicted 
to martyrdom for opinion's sake. Let them under- 
stand that they will be caught [lynched] if they come 
among us, and they will take good heed to keep out 
of our way. There is not one man among them who 
has any more idea of shedding his blood in this eause 
than he has of making war on the grand Turk." 

To these instances of clerical devotion to the wor- 
ship of the bloody idol, Judge Birney adds this ; a 
letter from a reverend divine, announcing his inten- 



388 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

tion to appear at the next session of the Presbytery, 
with important business, for which he would have 
everybody previously prepare. He opens thus ; 
To the Sessions of the Presbyterian Congregations 
within the bounds of the West Hanover Presbytery : 
At the appointed stated meeting of our Presbytery, 
I design to offer a preamble and resolutions on the 
subject of treasonable and abominably wicked in- 
terference of the northern and eastern fanatics, with 
our political and civil rights, our property and our do- 
mestic concerns. You are aware that our clergy, 
whether with or without reason, are more suspected by 
the public than the clergy of other denominations. 
Now, dear christian brethren, I humbly express it as 
my earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men. If 
there be any stray goat of a minister among you, 
tainted with the blood-hound principles of abolition- 
ism, let him be ferreted out, silenced, excommunicated, 
and left to the public to dispose of him in in other respects. 
Your affectionate brother in the Lord, 

Robert N. Anderson. 

Mr. Birney farther gives us this individual expres- 
sion of Rev. Dr. Spring, of New York. He says : 
"At the anniversary of the American colonization so- 
ciety, held in Washington, in 1839, Dr. Spring was on 
the platform, as one of the speakers. At his side was 
Mr. Henry A. Wise, a Virginia member of congress, a 
slave-holder and professional duelist. In his speech, 
he had declared : 'The best way to meet the aboli- 
tionists is with cold steel and Dupont's best ! ' ' [best 
gun-powder.] And Mr. Birney adds : " We were 
told that Dr. Spring spoke in sympathy with the south- 
ern sentiment, as evinced in the speech of Mr. Wise." 
Subsequently, Mr. Birney says : " The doctor preached 
and published a series of sermons on slavery in its 
scriptural relations, which were regarded by the pro- 
slavery party as highly serviceable to their cause." 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 389 

If it shall be objected that these are only individual 
utterances, it may be said for that very reason they 
are given. But they are also the expression of the 
most eminent />/v-eminent men in the denomination. 
Men of whom one is supposed to chase a thousand, 
and two to put ten thousand abolitionists to flight, 
even though ''with cold steel and Dupont's best." 

What follows shall be the expression of the very 
best of the general assembly, the new-school, and so 
late as the year 1846, when the American anti-slavery 
society had reached its sixteenth year, and when mul- 
titudes of church members had left the communion, 
when new and free churches had been organized and 
ministers settled over them, in the good name of anti- 
slavery. 

At the session of 1846, the voice of protest against 
slavery was so much louder and stronger than ever 
before, that a report had to be made as nearly as pos- 
sible in tune and tone with the protests. It was pre- 
sented by Rev. Dr. Durheld, and read as follows : 

The system ot slavery, as it exists in these United 
States, viewed either in the laws of the several states 
which sanction it, or in its actual operation and re- 
sult in society, is intrinsically unrighteous and oppres- 
sive, and is opposed to the prescriptions of the law of 
God, to the spirit and precepts of the gospel, and to 
the best interests of humanity. 

The testimony of the general assembly, from the 
A. D. 1787, to A. D. 1818, inclusive, has condemned 
it, and it remains still the recorded testimony of the 
Presbyterian church of these United States against it, 
from which we do not recede. 

We cannot, therefore, withhold the expression of 
deep regret that slavery should be continued and coun- 
tenanced by any of the members of our churches ; 
and we do earnestly exhort both them and the 
churches, among whom its exists, to use all means in 
their power to put it away from them. Its perpetua- 



39° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

tion among them cannot fail to be regarded by multi- 
tudes influenced by their example, as sanctioning the 
system portrayed in it, and maintained by the statutes 
of the several slaveholding states, wherein they dwell. 

But while we believe that many evils incident to the 
system, render it important and obligatory to bear tes- 
timony against it, yet would we not undertake to de- 
termine the degree of moral turpitude on the part of 
individuals involved by it. This will doubtless be 
found to vary in the sight of God, according to the 
degree of light and other circumstances pertaining to 
each. In view of all the embarrassments and obsta- 
cles in the way of emancipation interposed by the 
statutes of the slaveholding states, and by the social 
influence affecting the views and conduct of those in- 
volved in it, we cannot pronounce a judgment of general 
and promiscuous condemnation, implying that desti- 
tution of christian principle and feeling which should 
exclude from the table of the Lord all who should 
stand in the legal relation of masters to slaves, or jus- 
tify us in withholding our ecclesiastical and christian 
fellowship from them. We rather sympathize with, 
and would seek to succor them in their embarrass- 
ments, believing that separation and Recession among 
the churches and their members, are not the methods 
God approves and sanctions for the reformation of 
his church. 

While, therefore, we fee! bound to bear our testi- 
mony against slavery, and to exhort our beloved 
brethren to remove it from them as speedily as possi- 
ble, by all appropriate and available means, we do at 
the same time condemn all divisive and schismatical 
measures, tending to destroy the unity and disturb the 
peace of our church, and deprecate the spirit of de- 
nunciation and inflicting severities, which would cast 
from the fold those whom we are rather bound, by the 
spirit of the gospel, and the obligations of our coven- 
ant, to instruct, to counsel, to exhort, and thus to lead 
in the ways of God ; and towards whom, even though 
they may err, to exercise forbearance and brotherly 

ve. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 391 

As a court of our Lord Jesus Christ, we possess no 
legislative authority ; and as the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian church, we possess no judiciary au- 
thority. We have no right to institute and prescribe 
a test of christian character and church membership, 
not recognized and sanctioned in the sacred scrip- 
tures, and in our standards, by which we have agreed 
to walk. We must leave, therefore, this matter with 
the sessions, presbyteries and synods — the judicator- 
ies to whom pertains the right of judgment to act in 
the administration of discipline, as they may judge it 
to be their duty, constitutionally, subject to the gen- 
eral assembly, only in the way of general review and 
control. 

This was the exact position of the General Assem- 
bly New School in 1846. Briefly analyzed, it contains 
a fearful condemnation of slave-holding ; then a 
re-statement of the old positions of the body, back in 
the former century and onward to 18 18, and a hypo- 
critical profession of adherence to them still ; * * 
hypocritical, because regret is expressed in another 
place that, "slavery is still countenanced and contin- 
ued by members of our churches;" which, if true, 
and slavery be such sin and shame, crime and cruelty, 
why were not the offenders dealt with long ago as 
other sinners, and so the church cleansed from such a 
curse? But the next propositition is a most unblush- 
ing attempt, weak too, as well as wicked, to excuse 
and extenuate the guilt of slave-holding, notwith- 
standing the previous stunning condemnation of it ; 
while the last declaration is that " as a court of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, we possess no legislative authority, 
and as the general assembly of the Presbyterian 
church, we possess no judicial authority ! " And so 
the abomination went on from generation to genera- 
tion ; growing with the nation's growth, increasing 
with the increase of the church ! 1 



392 ACTS OF ANTI-SI. AVERY APOSTLES. 

Parodied in but a single word, this is the way these 
grave propositions would, a part of them, read : 

First, the system of legalized adultery, as it exists 
in these United States is intrinsically unrighteous, 
and opposed to the law of God and the spirit and 
precepts of the gospel. 

We cannot, therefore, withhold the expression of 
deep regret, that adultery should be countenanced and 
continued by any of the members of our churches. 
And we do earnestly exhort both them and the 
churches among whom it exists, to use all means in 
their power to put it away. 

But while we believe that many evils incident to 
adultery, render it important and obligatory to bear 
testimony against it, yet we would not undertake to 
determine the degree of moral turpitude, on the part 
of individual adulterers. This will doubtless be found 
to vary in the sight of God, according to the degree 
of light and other circumstances pertaining to each 
individual. 

While, therefore, we feel bound to bear our testi- 
mony against adultery, and to exhort our beloved 
erring brethren to remove it from them, as speedily as 
possible, by all available and appropriate means, we 
do at the same time condemn all divisive and sehis- 
matical measures, te'nding to destroy the unity and 
disturb the peace of our church, and deprecate the 
spirit of denunciation, and inflicting severities which 
would cast from the fold those adulterers whom we 
are rather bound by the spirit of the gospel, and the 
obligations of our covenant, to instruct, to counsel, to 
exhort, and thus to lead in the way of God ; and 
towards whom, even though they may err, to exercise 
forbearance and brotherly love. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 393 

Does not this change of a word throw light and 
lightning on the problem ? Or suppose the words 
sheep -stealing and sheep-stealers had been substituted, 
taking the hint from him who exclaimed once, " How 
much better is a man than a sheep ! " 

And yet was not slavery both adultery and theft in 
all their most odious forms? That very church had 
quoted the eminent scholar, as well as priest and di- 
vine, Grotius, as declaring man-stealing to be the 
very highest kind of theft. But it was away back in 
1794. The one unalterable truth was, the leading 
clergy never held slavery to be sin, in any such sense 
as even mere heretical offenses. Here is the general 
assembly, meekly and humbly confessing that it "pos- 
sesses no judicial, no legislative authority to reach 
such "sum of all villainies" as slave-breeding and 
slave-holding, and drive it out of church communion 
and fellowship ! Does anybody believe that if it were 
a question of robbing hen-roosts, instead of cradles 
and trundle-beds, a way would not have been made, 
had none existed, out of dilemma so dreadful, in all 
the years between 1794 and 1846? Church mem- 
bers and ministers have been expelled from the 
churches for denying or doubting the right or validity 
of infant baptism, where infant-stealers, where baby- 
breeders for the slave shambles, were welcomed to 
both pulpit and sacramental supper ! Is it, then, too 
much to say, that denominational differences in the 
American churches have been deemed greater offenses 
and to be more severely and summarily punished 
than all the atrocities connected with the holding of 
slaves ? 

a. b. c. F. M. 

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions was organized in the year 1810. It was com- 



394 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

posed of ministers and members of the Congregational 
and Presbyterian churches mainly, and its sole object 
was to operate among heathen nations and tribes, 
with a view to their enlightenment, elevation and cul- 
tivation. Its membership was gathered from north 
and south, its missionaries, in one instance, Rev. John 
Leighton Wilson, a slave-holder, (and according to 
his statement there were others) as well as young min- 
isters and their wives from non-slave-holding states ; 
and its treasury was supplied from the northern and 
southern states, the gifts of those whose wealth as well 
as traffic, was in "slaves and souls of men," And 
Judge Birney's tract contains an authentic account of 
one legacy left to the Board, bequeathed for the ben- 
efit of the Indian mission, which for some reason was 
in litigation in the Georgia courts. And an advertise- 
ment copied from the Charleston, South Carolina, 
Courier of February 12, 1835, was to this purport : 

" FIELD NEGROES. 

By Thomas Gadsden. On Tuesday, the 17th inst., 
will be sold at the north of the Exchange, at ten 
o'clock, a. m., a prime gang of 

TEN NEGROES, 

accustomed to the culture of cotton and provisions, 
belonging to the Independent church, in Christ's 
church parish. 

February 6, 1835." 

What was here but " trade in slaves and souls of 
men ?" 

In the United States the operations of the board 
extended only to the Indian tribes, and to but few of 
them, chiefly the Cherokees and Choctaws. The 
American board, like the general assembly, and at 
about the same time, became greatly disturbed by the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOST1 I 395 

agitation of the question of slavery. And like the 
general assembly, they referred the whole matter to 
committees for examination and report. In 1845, 
petitions and memorials against slavery were so many 
that the board seemed compelled to something more 
declarative than in preceding years in regard to them. 
Accordingly an august committee of nine was elected, 
all eminent men, Rev. Dr. Woods, of Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary, chairman. Their report, of nine 
closely-printed octavo pages, is before me, but no 
change of former action is even recommended, either 
by the board itself or by its missionaries. The bur- 
den of complaint was that missionaries admitted slave- 
holders to the mission churches sustained by the 
moneys of the board, contributed by the churches. 
The charge was admitted, but justified thus : 

The primary object aimed at in missions should be 
to bring men to a saving knowledge of Christ, by mak- 
ing known to them the way of salvation through His 
cross. * * The missionaries acting under the 
commission of Christ and with the instruction of the 
New Testament before them, are themselves at first, 
and subsequentlv with the churches they have gath- 
ered, the rightful and exclusive judges of what consti- 
tutes adequate evidence of purity and fitness for 
church fellowship in professed converts. 
The indulgence of any known sin, and the neglect of 
any known duty, are to be decidedly discountenanced. 

* * In respect to social and moral evils, with 
which missionaries are to come in contact in proscu- 
ting their work, it should be borne in mind that they 
are by no means few or of limited territorial extent. 
The evils of slavery will probably be met in some form 
in nearly every part of the great missionary field. 

* * Should it be found, as the result of experi- 
ence, that souls among the heathen are in fact regen- 
erated by the Holy Spirit before they are freed from 
all participation in the social and moral evils, and that 



396 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

convincing evidence can be given that they are regen- 
erated, then may not the master and the slave, the 
ruler and the subject, giving such evidence of spir- 
itual renovation, be all gathered into the same fold of 
Christ? * In proceeding on these princi- 

ples the missions, under the care of this board and the 
churches gathered under them, are no otherwise con- 
nected with slavery than they are with every other 
evidence and result of imperfect moral renovation in 
their converts and church members. And they no 
more really give their sanction to the one than they do 
to all the others. 

It may be well to show here what some of those 
social and moral evils are, which are enumerated in 
this report. Next to slavery castes in India come ; 
then " unrestrained exactions made in the form of 
revenues ;" then " military or other service connected 
with a species of feudalism," and lastly, and later in 
the report, " Polygamy ! " 

Exactly how many wrongs are required to make one 
right, or to justify one wrong, the board does not 
show. It seems to plead guilty to sanctifying so many 
at the outset. But paying taxes and performing mili- 
tary service are not counted " social and moral evils," 
nor yet '' results of imperfect moral development" in 
the United States nor Great Britain. But even should 
the mission converts be compelled to most oppressive 
taxation, in whatever form, they surely are never re- 
quired to perpetrate slave-holding nor polygamy, for 
both of which the missionaries of the board were 
called to account, and were not only proved, but, to a 
limited extent, actually pleaded guilty. But to return 
to the report : 

Your committee believe that no established system 
of involuntary servitude prevails among any tribe of 
North American Indians where the missionaries of this 
board are laboring, except the Cherokees and Choc- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 397 

taws. * The following statements will there- 

fore relate to the Cherokee and Choctaw missions, 

* Negro slaves appear to have been intro- 
duced among those Indians by white men, who re- 
moved into their country from sixty to eighty years 
ago, and to have gradually increased in number, till 
the missions were established among them in 1817 
and 1 818. By a census taken in 1820, Cherokees 
were holding five hundred and eighty-three slaves. 

* The number now owned by both tribes 
may probably be not far from two thousand ; while 
the number of Indians in both tribes is thirty-eight 
thousand. * * That slavery should exist at 
all in these tribes who have suffered so severely from 
the violation of their own rights by their white neigh- 
bors, is deeply to be regretted. And all should earn- 
estly pray that as social improvement and christian 
knowledge are advancing rapidly among them, they 
may rapidly exemplify the spirit of the true philan- 
thropy as well as the gospel law of love, by showing 
that they duly appreciate the rights and welfare of 
the whole race of man. * * 

* "Relative to the principles on which converts were 
to be received to the churches, all the missionaries of 
the board among the Cherokees and Choctaws, seem 
to have been perfectly unanimous, Both masters and 
slaves," says Mr. Buttrick, "I receive on the same 
principle, viz., on the ground of their faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ." Mr. Worcester says: "The general 
principle on which I have voted for the reception of 
members is that all are to be received who desire it, 
and give evidence of a change of heart." Mr. Wright 
says : "When any, whether masters or servants, have 
given evidence of a change of heart, of repentance 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have been re- 
ceived." * * * 

* * * " The whole number of the 
Cherokee tribe is about eighteen thousand, and the 
number of slaves owned by them is probably about 
one thousand. The whole number of church mem- 
bers in this tribe is two hundred and forty, of whom 
fifteen hold slaves, and twenty-one are themselves 



39 8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

slaves The Choctaw tribe, including the Chickasaws, 
about twenty thousand. The whole number con- 
nected with our churches there is six hundred and 
three oT whom twenty hold slaves, one hundred and | 
thirty-one are slaves, and seven are tree, negroes 

-* * * Mr. Bymgton says: "We 

give such instruction to masters and servants as are 
contained in the epistles, and yet not in a way to give 
the subject a peculiar prominence, for then it would 
seem to be personal, as there are usually but one or 
wo slave-holders present. In private, we converse 
about all the ills and dangers of slavery. Mr. Wright 
says "The instructions, public and private, direct 
and 'indirect, have beeiyuch as are found in the 

Blbl % * * ic strongly as your commit- 

tee are convinced of the wrongfulness and evil ten- 
dene es of shareholding, and ardently as they desire 
its speedy termination, still they cannot think that in 
all cases it involves individual guilt, in such manner 
It every person implicated in it can on senptura 
grounds be excluded from church fellowship. 1 i the 
fano-uage of Dr. Chalmers, < Distinction ought to be 
made betwixt the character of a system, and the char- 
ter of the persons whom circumstances have impli- 
cated m it. ^ ^ u Suchi substantially, are the 
views of your committee; and the more they study 
Sod's method of proceeding in regard to war, slavery, 
polygamy and other kindred social wrongs, as it is un- 
folded in the Bible, the more they are convinced that 
n deal ng with individuals implicated in those wrongs 
of lono- standing, and intimately interwoven with the 
relatTons and moments of the social system he ut- 
most kindness and forbearance are to be exercised, 
Xh are compatib.e with .teady adhere to P„„ 

* # * Some of the slave-noiueib 
have'' been known to require their slaves to attedd 
meetings and other opportunities for obtaining reh- 
Xus instruction, and all are believed to favor then 
loino-so Before it was forbidden by law in 1841, 
numbers of their slaves were taught to read, in bab- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



599 



bath and week-day schools. And such instruction is 
still, to some extent, given in private, and seven out 
of fourteen slaves in Fairfield church, in the Cherokee 
country, can read, and one can write. * * * 
One who has been occasionally employed as a helper 
in missionary work, highly esteemed for intelligence 
and exemplary piety, has been left by the will of his 
master, manager of his property, and virtually guar- 
dian of his orphan child and heir. * * * 

* ''That the missionaries among 

these Indians have been faithful in their work, seems 
evident, not only from their own statements, but also 
from the fact that the holy spirit has most remarkably 
owned and blessed their labors, the hopeful converts 
among the Choctaws being proportionately more nu- 
merous than those in any other mission connected 
with the board, except that at the Sandwich Islands." 
Finally, the report closes with this remarkable con- 
fession, without proposing any change, or system of 
operations that would tend to remove the atrocious 
slave system, or ameliorate the condition of one of its 
victims. Here is the conclusion of the report, the 
names of the committee appended to it : 

" There can be no prospect of benefiting the slave, 
in a slave country, without the consent of the owner. 
The only hope we can have of benefiting either the 
one or the other, is through the influence of the gos- 
pel ; and the gospel, to be effectual must be conveyed 
in the spirit of meekness and love." 

Leonard Woods, 
Bennet Tyler, 
Reuben N. Walworth, 
Thomas W. Williams, 
Calvin E. Stowe, 
Benjamin Tappan, 
David Sanford, 
James W. McLane, 
David Greene. 
The American board is occupying much space, but 
it must be remembered that it represented the Con- 
gregational and Presbyterian church and clergy of 



400 ACTS 01 ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

the country at that time, both as to religion at home 
and as sent to the heathen abroad. Abolitionists 
charged that it was a pro-slavery religion, and in no 
sense anti-slavery. None denied that there were hon- 
orable exceptions ; but as in the state, so in the 
church, the governing influence, and power upheld 
and extended slavery, and so slavery continued, and 
its victims were multiplied. 

The report underwent long discussion, and scanty 
extracts of the arguments are here given. Rev. Dr. 
Tyler, president of a Connecticut theological semi- 
nary, said : " The apostles admitted slave-holders to 
the church, and for this board to decide against it 
would be to impeach the apostles." 

Rev, Dr. Bacon, another Connecticut divine, said : 
"The board ought to make a distinction between sla- 
very and slave- hoi ding, a distinction that I deem ex- 
tremely obvious. The master does not make the man 
a slave, but the laws and constitution of society." 
Readers will remember that Dr. Bacon was before us 
not very long ago, with his anti-slavery. He was 
famous at definitions , and stating and adjusting issues, 
not one of which I think he declared " raised by Gar- 
rison, was ever accepted." But here was a definition 
to be admired, a distinction to be remembered ; a 
"distinction between slavery and slave-holding." A 
distinction between horse-stealing and stealing horses. 
"The master does not make the man a slave." To be 
sure, he takes him, works him ; takes her, works her, 
and if there be children, the laws say "they shall fol- 
low the condition of the mother ! " Not the father. 
There was often a too striking resemblance between 
the owner or overseer, and the children, for that. So 
the children followed the condition of the mother. 
And thus Dr. Bacon's innocent slave-holder enjoyed 






ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOST1 Is. 401 

all the profits of the outrageous robbery and wrong, 
from generation to generation, and the "laws and 
constitution of society " suffered the perdition which 
otherwise the thief and robber must meet. 

Dr. Stowe, of another theological seminar)-, said : 
" I would sooner die, than say our missionaries ought 
to enter their open protest against all the evils with 
which they may come in contact. * * * 

Jacob lived with four women at once. Had there 
been an organized church then, must Jacob have been 
excluded?" * * "These examples 

are for our instruction, and give us just the light we 
need in this matter." 

And Dr. Beecher said: "Masters and slaves ex- 
isted in the primitive churches, and it was allowed by 
Christ and his apostles. Slavery is an organic sin, 
made by law, and therefore not dealt with as other 
sins." 

" Organic sin." That was good. That was worthy 
of Dr. Bacon. I remember a wicked wag who asked, 
on reading it, " Could not the laws and constitution 
of society organize all the sins ? and then we could 
rush in the millennium as by spontaneous com- 
bustion." 

The report was thus severely criticised, and how 
earnestly was shown in the strange fact that, on taking 
the vote, there was not one dissenting voice ! 

And it is certain that most of the churches, and 
doubtless many ministers, were ignorant that one of 
their own missionaries was owning slaves at home 
while preaching to the Africans in their own native 
land. Nor did they know what laws the Choctaw and 
Cherokee Indians enacted to protect themselves in 
slave-holding, after the missionaries went among 



402 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

them. The Indians had heard of the abolitionists, 
and doubtless feared, if they did not suspect the mis- 
sionaries themselves. 

The secretaries and directors of the board knew all 
about those slavery-protecting enactments, as well as 
did their missionaries ; but they did not disclose all 
they knew. They did not for a long time tell that 
John Leighton Wilson, one of their African mission- 
aries, was himself an owner and holder of slaves. 
The Boston Recorder did, and the Congregational Ob- 
server said : " The secretaries have not acted with 
their usual judgment in suppressing the letter of Mr. 
Wilson, for six years" — a letter as was said, announc- 
ing that he, and even other missionaries, owned slaves. 

Here are a few examples of Indian legislation to 
protect the holding of slaves in the nations : 

"Beit enacted by the national council, that from 
and after the passage of this act, it shall not be lawful 
for any person or persons to teach any free negro or 
negress, not of Cherokee blood, nor any slave, belong- 
ing to any citizen or citizens of the nation, to read or 
write." The annexed penalty is "fine not less than 
one hundred, nor more than five hundred dollars, at 
the discretion of the court." 

Another statute prohibited slaves from "owning any 
horses, cattle, swine, or fire-arms." The reason as- 
signed for such legislation was, that the ownership of 
such property by slaves, " has become a nuisance to 
the master, and a temptation to theft." 

In 1836, the Choctaws enacted : "That from and 
after the passage of this act, (and it was almost twenty 
years after the mission had been established), if any 
citizen of the United States, acting as a missionary, 
or a preacher, or whatever his occupation may be, is 
found to take active part in favoring the principles 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 403 

and notions of the most fatal and destructive doc- 
trines of abolitionism, he shall be compelled to leave 
the nation, and forever to stay out of it. 

"And be it further enacted : That teaching slaves 
how to read, to«write, or to sing, in meeting-houses or 
schools, or in any open place, without the consent of 
the owner, or allowing them to sit at table with him, 
shall be sufficient ground to convict persons of favor- 
ing the principles and notions of abolitionism." 

And this one more, enacted on the 15th of October, 
1846, almost at the very moment of the meeting of 
the board when the report of the committee of nine 
was made, now under our consideration : 

" Be it enacted ; That no negro slave can be 
emancipated in this nation, except by application, or 
petition of the owner to the general council. And 
provided also that it shall be made to appear to the 
council, that the owner or owners, at the time of ap- 
plication, shall have no debt or debts outstanding 
against him, her, or them, either in or out of this na- 
tion. Then, and in that case, the general council 
shall have power to pass an act for the owner to 
emancipate his or her slave, which slave, after being 
freed, shall leave this nation within thirty days after 
the passage of this act. And in case any such slave 
or slaves shall return into this nation afterwards, he, 
she, or they, shall be exposed to public sale for the 
term of five years, and the proceeds of such sale shall 
be used as national funds." 

And now the most remarkable word of all remains 
to be spoken. The A. B. C. F. M. held its anniver- 
saries regularly ; made annual and most elaborate re- 
ports ; some of them showing frightful pictures of the 
slave system among the Cherokee and Choctaw 
churches and church members. But in the year 1859, 



404 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

the board reported its work done in the Choctaw na- 
tion, and in i860, in the Cherokee, and gave its legit- 
imate, logical reason : " The Cherokees are a chris- 
tian people." * * * 

* * * " The committee have arrived 
at the conclusion that it is time to discontinue its ex- 
penditures among the Cherokees. To prevent all 
misapprehension, it should be stated at the outset > 
First, that this is not owing to the relations of our work 
among; those Indians to the system of slavery." The 
Choctaw mission was similarly closed, in 1859. 

O, no! "Slavery had nothing to do with it!" 
The board found slavery among the Indians in 181 7, 
accepted it as of divine appointment, and compelled 
its missionaries to accept it, and they did ; as did the 
churches and pulpits that sustained them, When the 
anti-slavery agitation reached to the churches, and 
protests were sent up against a slave-holding religion, 
supported at home, and sent abroad to the heathen, 
the Board refused to interfere. And once when the 
Sandwich Island missionaries sent home a most power- 
ful remonstrance against slave-holding in the churches 
as a hindrance to their missionary work as well as 
false to the true christian faith, the Board suppressed 
their testimony, and by solemn resolution duly adopted, 
recorded and published, virtually imposed silence on 
the subject, at every missionary station under its 
patronage. When the interest on the subject began 
to threaten loss to the treasury, then the Board by its 
Secretaries attempted, by argument to justify slavery 
as supported by scripture ; by patriarchal practice and 
apostolic approval, the very chiefest apostle actually, 
as was claimed, voluntarily restoring a runaway slave 
to his owner. From 181 7 to i860, more than forty 
years, did the Board conduct the religious and moral 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 405 

education of those Indian tribes, gathering them into 
churches : masters and slaves alike, with this law in 
full force : 

No slave, or child of a slave, is to be taught to read 
or write, in or at any school, by any one connected in 
any capacity therewith, on pain of dismissal and 
expulsion from the nation. 

And now one thought more, and the Board and all 
its work shall be discharged from further consid- 
eration. 

In i860 the Cherokees, and in 1859 the Choctaws, 
were graduated by the Board from paganism to Chris- 
tianity with full credentials, as no longer in the dark- 
ness of the heathen world. In 1861, the war of 
Rebellion set the country on fire. The Indian tribes 
were early awake to the situation. The New York 
Evangelist, on the 21st of March of the same year, 
1861, said; "the Cherokee, Choctaw, and other 
Indian tribes of the south-west, nearly all of them 
slave-holders, are evidently under the influence of the 
secessionists. The principal Choctaw chief hastened 
to convene the local legislature * * * and 
recommended a. general council of the Chickasaws, 
Creeks, Seminoles and Choctaws to be held at a cen- 
tral point for the purpose of adopting some line of 
policy necessary to their security. 

In August following, the New York Journal of 
Commerce announced that : " The Choctaws, Creeks, 
Seminoles and Chickasaws have given their adher- 
ence to the Confederates, and probably the Cherokees 
are divided on the question." 

Of the rest, we know enough. How well and truly 
was it said at the opening of the war of Rebellion, "in 
the forty-two years of the maintenance of the Chero- 
kee and Choctaw missions, by the American Board, 



406 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

they have connived at slavery, avoiding, by various dis- 
honorable and dishonest means and contrivances, the 
hard duty of reformation. Now they go a step fur- 
ther, spontaneously and publicly vouching for slave- 
holding churches as christian churches, and for a 
nation upholding the worst form of slavery, as "a 
christian people." 

And between four and five thousand armed Indian 
warriors, led by an able Boston-born general, the 
tallest, handsomest officer in the rebel army, at the bat- 
tle of Pea Ridge, fighting in a war waged by slave- 
holders and waged wholly for slavery, and nothing 
else, was a spectacle worthy the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions ! 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Or if we turn to the Baptist denomination with its 
vast proportion in the slave states, the record will not 
improve ; and in that again we can learn its spirit 
and position through its great national Foreign 
Missionary Association known in early anti-slavery 
days as The Baptist Triennial Convention. The har- 
mony in it seems never to have been disturbed by the 
slavery problem till broken by the tocsin of the aboli- 
tionists. For so late as the year 1834, Rev. Dr. Bolles, 
of Boston, one of its Secretaries of correspondence in 
an official paper, said : 

There is a pleasing degree of union among the mul- 
tiplying thousands of Baptists throughout the land. 
* * * Our southern brethren are generally 
slave-holders, both ministers and people. 

And another Boston Baptist doctor of divinity, Rev. 
Daniel Sharp, wrote under date January 21st, 1840: 
"There were undoubtedly both slave-holders and slaves 
in the primitive churches ; I therefore for one, do not 
feel myself at liberty to make conditions of commun- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 407 

ion which neither Christ nor his apostles made. I do 
not feel myself wiser nor better than were they ; * 
* * and I believe that a majority of the wisest 
and best men at the north hold to these sentiments." 

In 1841, at the Triennial convention and by appoint- 
ment, a slave-holder presided, another slave holder 
performed the devotional exercises, and a third slave- 
holder preached the Triennial sermon ; and the Rev. 
Elon Galusha, of New York, an tamest, outspoken 
anti-slavery man, was removed from the Board of 
Management, partly, or principally, from demands 
like this of the Camden, South Carolina Baptist 
church : 

Resolved, That we view with contempt, the advice, 
opinions, menaces and declarations of Elon Galusha 
and his coadjuutors contained in their address to 
southern Baptists. 

Resolved, That we recommend to our associations 
to use their influence to have Elon Galusha expelled 
from his office as Vice-President of the Board of 
Foreign Missions. 

The fifth, sixth and seventh, ran thus : 

Resolved, That we extend to northern Baptists who 
are opposed to the abolitionists, our warmest affection 
and fraternal regard. They will ever have an interest 
in our prayers. 

Resolved, That the address of Elon Galusha be 
returned to him, with request that he will never again 
insult us with an address of any kind. 

Resolved, That these proceedings be published in 
the Christian Index, The Biblical Recorder, Religious 
Herald, New York Baptist Advocate, and Camden 
Journal. 

C. M. Bleeker, Chairman, 
E. G. Robinson, Secretary. 

And as already told, Mr. Galusha was removed. 
All the proceedings appeared to have been in keeping 



408 ACTS OK ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

with such expulsion ; for the meeting closed with the 
sacramental supper and singing: 

Lo, what an entertaining' sight 
Are brethren who agree ! 

A member writing to the Biblical Recorder and 
Southern Watchman, thus rejoices: 

Our meeting was truly delightful. The spirit of 
the gospel prevailed, and gave a tremendous shock 
to the abolitionists. Let us be thankful to God, and 
give him the glory. And now, if we of the south and 
they of the north, whose sympathies are with us, shall 
be mild I am satisfied that abolitionism will go down 
among Baptists. All our " principal men" are sound 
to the core on this vexed question. 

The Triennial Convention exhibited a noble spec- 
tacle of moral grandeur. About two hundred and 
fifty men from the various parts of our extended coun- 
try were engaged in a long and arduous session, that 
tried the temper and put into requisition all the intel- 
lectual energy which they possessed. And all this in 
connection with a most exciting subject. And yet, 
self-possession, calmness, the christian spirit, predom- 
inated throughout the whole scene. No tumult, no 
angry feeling, no harsh expression had place in our 
deliberations and conclusions. At the communion 
board on Lord's day the scene was overwhelming. In 
view of the cross the hundreds that participated were 
all one. No test, other than that of our dear Lord's 
requirement, was thought of. To God be all the glory, 
Amen and Amen. 

But such dissatisfaction arose among the now " prin- 
cipal men" in the convention that before the next Tri- 
ennial gathering a division occurred. A new but 
small rival society was formed. One principal reason 
assigned being that gifts of slave-holders should not 
mingle with northern contributions in the missionary 
treasury, since God had said " I hate robbery for a 
burnt offering-." 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 409 

But the extent of principle and height of integrity of 
this new and sublimated movement, was seen in the 
fact, that when, just afterwards, the old board sus- 
tained a loss by a failure in India, there was an imme- 
diate appropriation of five hundred dollars voted to it, 
with all its slavery, out of this purified treasurv. The 
following is the official record of the proceeding : 

Whereas, The Foreign Mission Board have re- 
cently sustained a heavy loss, by the failure of their 
banker at Calcutta, and thus appropriated supplies are 
cut off from the missionaries in Asia ; therefore 

Resolved, That the treasurer of this committee be 
instructed to forward, as soon as possible, five hun- 
dred dollars from funds now in the treasury, to the 
relief of the missionaries, "to be expended under the 
direction of Dr. Judson and Mr. Vinton." 

[Signed] S. G. Shipley, Chairman. 

C. \V '. Denison, Secretary. 

The new association seems to have been short lived, 
for at the next meeting of the old board, all parties 
old and new were present, and the proceedings were 
as unanimous almost as before slavery had ever dis- 
turbed them. The president, a North Carolina slave- 
holder, declined a reelection, on the ground that, as 
for more than thirty years the chief officer had been 
selected from the slaves states, it was time the boon 
should be conferred on the north. Accordingly, the 
Rev. Dr. Wayland, of Providence, on the second bal- 
lotting, was elected to that office. 

The subject of Slavery was introduced and disposed 
of by the passage of the following resolution, only 
two voting in the negative : 

Resolved, That cooperating together as members of 
this convention in the work of foreign missions, we 
disclaim all sanction, either express or implied, of 
slavery or anti-slavery / but as individuals we are free 
to express and promote our view on this or other sub- 
jects, in a christian manner and spirit. 



410 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Rev. Mr. Davis, of New York, [neighbor of Elon 
Galusha] then remarked with much exultation, if not 
exaltation, that the convention had passed a stupendous 
crisis, and moved a season of devotional exercises. 
The season was voted, a northern minister, Mr. Webb, 
of Philadelphia, gave thanks, and they closed with 
singing the Doxology, by the congregation, 

" Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." 

In view of the passage of the above resolution, the 
editor of the Boston Christian Reflector, a professedly 
anti-slavery journal, most complacently remarked : 

" It will be seen by the passage of the resolution on 
Friday, that we are no longer required to fellowship 
slavery or slave-holders, as such, in the work of mis- 
sions." 

But had the business related to infant sprinkling 
instead of infant stealing, or on immersion as baptism, 
instead of sprinkling, the whole past history of this 
immense denomination throughout Christendom proves 
it would never have been so easily nor so amicably 
adjusted. In 1846, a new association was incorpora- 
ted under the name of "The American Baptist Mis- 
sionary Union," and the old triennial was no more. 
The first article of the new constitution designates the 
name, the second the object of the society. The third 
provides that " persons, " without reference to place, 
" may be life members, by the payment at one time of 
not less than one hundred dollars." The twenty-first 
article declares that the officers and missionaries of 
the association " shall be members in good standing of 
regular Baptist churches." No north nor south any 
more. 

It has been contended that this association was 
formed with particular reference to a separation from 
slavery. I was so informed by an officer of the board. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 41 I 

But there was no such intimation, either in the act of 
incorporation or the constitution. Among the life 
members were persons from Missouri, Mississippi, 
Delaware, and Georgia ; and the first meeting of the 
board of managers was organized by the choice of a 
president from a free, and a secretary from a slave- 
state. The first meeting of the union was opened with 
prayer by the Rev. Nathaniel Colver, of Boston. All 
these proceedings, and others, are appended to the 
annual report of the old Baptist convention for 1846. 
But enough about the mission movements as be- 
tween south and north, or between slavery and anti- 
slavery. The Baptist denomination, like the others, 
had hosts of anti-slavery men and women ; but the 
ruling power was for slavery, or the system could not 
have survived as it did, till stove down by the aveng- 
ing bolts of eternal wrath. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Coming now to the mighty Methodist denomination 
it would be a relief and joy if a far better record could 
be given. But to write history, not make it, is the 
work still in hand. 

Two copies of the Methodist Book of Discipline are 
before me, of different dates, but both contain an ad- 
dress " To the Members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church," signed by the bishops, in which it is declared : 
" We wish to see this little publication in the house of 
every Methodist. And the more so, as it contains the 
articles of religion, maintained more or less, in part, 
or in whole, by every reformed church in the world. 
Far from wishing you to be ignorant of any of our 
doctrines, or any part of our discipline, we wish you 
to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the whole. 
You ought, next to the word of God, to procure the 

26 



412 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

articles and canons of the church to which you be- 
long." One chapter of the discipline is entitled : 
"General Rules and Reception of Members." On one 
page this is found : 

There is only one condition previously required of 
those who desire admission into these societies ; a 
desire to flee from the wrath to come and to be saved 
from their sins. 

But wherever this is really fixed in the soul it will 
be shown by its fruits. It is, therefore, expected of 
all who continue therein that they should continue to 
evidence their desire for salvation ; 

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every 
kind, especially that which is most generally practiced ; 
the taking of the name of God in vain ; the profaning 
the day of the Lord ; drunkenness ; buying or selling 
spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of 
extreme necessity. 

And then the next, for some reason, to this writer 
inexplicable, is printed in italics, and reads thus : 

The buying and selling of men, women and children 
with an intention to enslave them. 

There are many more of these requirements of 
larger or less importance, and then the section closes 
thus : 

If there be any among us who observe not these 
rules, who habitually break any of them, let it be 
known unto them who watch over that soul, as they 
who must give account. We will admonish him of the 
error of his ways. We will bear with him for a season. 
But if then he repent not, he hath no more place 
among us. We have delivered our own souls. 

So much for text. Now for commentary. In less 
than half a century from the enactment of that mag- 
nificent rule and testimony against slavery, against 
"the buying and selling of men, women and children, 
with intention to enslave them," printed in the disci- 
pline in italics, from the first, the slaves of Methodist, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 413 

ministers, elders and deacons holding them with the 
rest, numbered tens of thousands, and those numbers 
rapidly increasing in every slave state. And before 
the Garrisonian anti-slavery agitation was seven years 
old that stupendous organization in general confer- 
ence, convened at Cincinnati, Ohio, anno domini 1836, 
by vote of a hundred and twenty to only fourteen, 
solemnly resolved that they " are decidedly opposed to 
modern abolititionism, and wholly disclaim any right, 
wish, or intention, to interfere in the civil and politi- 
cal relation between master and slave, as it exists in 
the slave-holding states of this Union." 

He is a close student of history who can parallel in 
brazen audacity and effrontery such action as this. By 
vote of a hundred and twenty to fourteen, on motion 
of Rev. A. J. Few, D. D., of Georgia, the conference 
solemnly declared they had " no wish nor intention " to 
fulfil what they have so often declared to the world 
was a most important part of their covenant vows. 

One of the rules specified in the section of rules and 
requirements reads : 

"By doing good, especially to them that are of the 
household of faith, employing them preferably to oth- 
ers, helping each other in business, and so much the 
more because the world will love its own, and them 
only." Now observe how this rule was respected. In 
southern and some northern states, colored people 
were never allowed to testify in any court against any 
white person in any case. Any outrage on any colored 
woman or man could be perpetrated by any white 
ruffian with perfect impunity, were none but colored 
witnesses at hand. And scenes and instances of 
shocking cruelty went often unpunished on that ac- 
count. 



414 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

And now behold the Methodist General Conference 
wrestling with a problem like that. There were at 
that moment more than eighty thousand colored 
Methodist communicants, and Ohio and several other 
non-slave-holding states enacted them all as unfit to 
give testimony under oath in any court of justice within 
their jurisdiction. They might do for Methodist 
churches, might even be fit for heaven, but they were 
not worthy to be trusted under oath to speak the 
truth. 

Now, what was to be done ? The conference was 
equal to the occasion. In 1840, in general conference 
assembled, this resolution was adopted, and become 
Methodist law : 

Resolved, That it is inexpedient and unjustifiable 
for any preacher to permit colored persons to give testi- 
mony against white persons, in any state where they 
are denied that privilege by law. 

So ran Methodist brotherly "preference" toward 
their " own household of faith," as required by the 
"rules of admission to fellowship." The state pro- 
nounced colored testimony unfit for courts of civil 
law and justice against white offenders, no matter what 
the crime. And the Methodist General Conference, 
in 1840, sanctified the impious proscription by extend- 
ing it over their own church trials, as well. 

Thus they unblushingly confessed to man and God 
that they had in fellowship over eighty thousand mem- 
bers, redeemed by sacrificial blood, enrolled in the 
" Lamb's Book of Life," as they believed when they 
baptised and received them ; eighty thousand fit to 
shine and reign for ever and ever in heaven, and yet 
not worthy to testify any more in an ecclesiastical 
court held before their own sacramental altar, than at 
any civil tribunal ! While the veriest blasphemer, the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 415 

vilest profligate who ever scoffed at the mention of 
religion, if covered with a white skin, even though 
purpled with drunkenness and debauchery, might be 
legal and competent testimony in both, to any extent, 
whatever the crime. In view of a proceeding so mon- 
strous, an eloquent writer of the time thus justly per- 
tinently said : 

By this rule, which is now a part of the discipline of 
the church, eighty thousand of its colored members 
are denied the right to testify against a white brother 
or sister in any case whatsoever. No matter what the 
crime may be, or how aggravating the circumstances. 
The reverend mover of the resolution might now vio- 
late the chastity of the colored members of his church 
with entire impunity. He is no longer in any danger 
of being censured and silenced by his more fortunate 
brethren, as was a late Massachusetts doctor of 
divinity. Should he unfortunately be " overtaken in 
a fault," the church has "provided a way of escape." 
And an ample provision it is, even for the chiefest of 
sinners. Neither the reverend doctor, nor any of his 
coadjutors, could desire greater liberty — or privilege^ 
as they might term it. The lips of their victim and 
her friends are now hermetically sealed up, both in 
the church and in the civil tribunals ! 

Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent Methodist scripture 
commentator, says, on Ephesians vi, fifth : " In 
heathen countries slavery had some sort of excuse. 
Among christians it is a crime for which perdition has 
scarce adequate punishment." But Dr. Adam Clarke 
had hever heard nor read of slavery in heathen coun- 
tries more horrible than the slavery thus supported, 
sanctioned and sanctified in the Methodist church ! 
What would he have said to this resolution of Dr. 
Few ? Thrilling protests were offered against it in 
the conference but to no purpose. One of them con- 
tained words like these : 



416 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The adoption of such a resolution has inflicted, 
as we fear, an irreparable injury upon eighty thousand 
souls, for whom Christ died. Souls, who by this act 
of your body, have been stripped of the dignity of 
christians, degraded in the scale of humanity and 
treated as criminals, for no other reason than the color 
of their skin ! 

The protest, which was wholly in the tone of these 
pathetic words, was, as Judge Birney shows, " handed 
to the bishops, but was never read to the conference." 

Why need it have been even handed to the bishops ? 
One had already declared, ex-cathedra, " The right to 
hold slaves is founded on this rule ; all things what- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so unto them." That was Bishop Hedding, 
whose home was in Lynn, Massachusetts. 

And the " pastoral letter " of the general conference 
of 1836, closed its solemn exhortation on the whole 
question of slavery in a strain like this : 

From every view which we have been able to take, 
and from the most calm and dispassionate survey of 
the whole ground, we have come to the conclusion 
that the only safe, scriptural and prudent way for us, 
both as ministers and people, to take is, wholly to re- 
frain from this agitating subject. 

And Bishop Soule had declared, " I have never yet 
advised the liberation of a slave, and I think I never 
shall." 

Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., President of the Wesleyan 
University in Connecticut, declared : "the relation of 
master and slave may, and does, in many cases exist 
under such circumstances as frees the master from the 
just charge and guilt of immorality. * * * The 
New Testament enjoins obedience upon the slave as 
an obligation due to a present rightful authority." 

And Moses Stuart, of Andover Theological Semin- 
ary, had published a tract, to prove that slavery was 



ACTS OK ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 417 

not in itself an evil ; and had said in so many words, 
"slavery may exist without any violation of the chris- 
tian faith." And it was in view of American slavery 
that he wrote. And Dr. Fisk endorsed Stuart thus : 
"This doctrine of Professor Stuart will stand, because 
it is Bible doctrine." 

But the impertinent and persistent meddling of some 
ministers and many of the laity of the Methodist body, 
in time had its disastrous effect ; and in the year 1843, 
a sufficient number of individual ministers and separ- 
ate churches had withdrawn from conference jurisdic- 
tion, to warrant anew Methodist organization. So in 
May, 1843, a convention was held in Utica, New 
York, and inaugurated The Wesleyan Methodist Con- 
nection of America. This mightily increased the agi- 
tation in the parent body. It was now certain that 
something decisive must be done, that had not yet 
even been contemplated. The next year, 1844, the 
general conference met in New York, where it was 
shown, to the terror of the most pro-slavery, that one 
of the bishops had, by recent marriage, become a 
slave-holder ! An agony of strife was wakened which 
lasted day after day. In the hope of appeasing the 
opponents of slavery, the Baltimore annual confer- 
ence voted with them on a censure ; but not expulsion 
from church nor office. The censure was only to the 
extent that "Bishop Andrew be requested to suspend 
the exercise of the duties of his office, while his 
impediment should exist, but that his name may stand 
in the hymn book and book of discipline, and his sal- 
ary be continued, just as in the past !" 

Our travelling agents were constantly disputed by 
Methodists as to the conference action on Bishop 
Andrew as a slave-holder. I myself had meetings 
broken up by mobs, for the sole offense of speaking 



4l8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

the truth, and only the truth, on that most remarkable 
proceeding in the Methodist general conference. 
After one of these riotous demonstrations, I pub- 
lished in the Liberator of January 28, 1848, the follow- 
ing letter, which readers must pardon me for produc- 
ing here : 

Dear Friend Garrison — A short time since, as I 
was addressing a large assembly on the connexion of 
the Methodist church with slavery, a minister of that 
denomination rose up and charged me with bearing 
false witness, and added, with much earnestness, that 
the church had even deposed one of its bishops, only for 
marrying a lady who held slaves. A similar declaration 
has been often made, and I find the church generally 
believes it. It may be that the ministers know no 
better ; though it is a defense of the ir hearts at great 
cost to their heads to suppose it. 

I have before me the official proceedings relative to 
Bishop Andrew, in the general conference of 1844, and 
will give a few very brief extracts. They were pub- 
lished by the church at the conference office in New 
York. 

After the subject had been many days under dis- 
cussion, and no prospect of an adjournment had 
appeared, the four bishops, beside Andrew, issued an 
address to the conference, in which they say, (page 

185)- 

At this painful crisis, we have unanimously con- 
curred in the propriety of recommending the postpone- 
ment of further action in the case of Bishop Andrew, 
until the ensuing conference. 

It was not done, however, and the discussion pro- 
ceeded. At length, the following resolution was 
passed, as the sense of the conference, (pp 191-2) — 

Whereas, the discipline of our church forbids the 
doing of any thing, calculated to destroy our itinerant 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 419 

general superintendence; and whereas, Bishop Andrew 
has become connected with slavery, by marriage and 
otherwise, and this act having drawn after it circum- 
stances, which, in the estimation of the general con- 
ference, will greatly embarrass the exercise of his 
office as an itinerant general superintendent, if not in 
some places entirely prevent it ; therefore, 

Resolved^ That it is the sense of this general confer- 
ence, that he desist from the exercise of this office, so 
long as this impediment remains ! 

The yeas and nays were taken, and the resolution 
was adopted, in to 69. 

After some further discussion, the bishops issued an- 
other address to the conference, proposing the three 
following questions — p. 214 of records: 

First — Shall Bishop Andrew's name remain, as it 
now stands in the minutes, hymn-book and discipline, 
or shall it be struck off of those official records? 

Second — How shall the bishop obtain his support? 
As provided for in the discipline, or in some other way ? 

Third — What work, if any, may the bishop perform? 
and how shall he be appointed to that work ? 

It was moved to refer the question to a committee 
of three, but the motion was afterwards withdrawn. 

The following, from page 216 of the Record of 
Proceedings, tells the rest : 

Mr. Mitchell proposed the following resolutions, in 
reply to the inquiries of the bishops : 

Resolved, First, as the sense of this conference, that 
Bishop Andrew's name stand in the minutes, hymn- 
book and discipline, as formerly. 

Resolved, Second, that the rule in relation to the 
support of a bishop and his family, applies to Bishop 
Andrew. 

Resolved, Third, that whether any, and in what 
work Bishop Andrew be employed, is to be determined 
by his own decision and action, in relation to the pre- 
vious action of this conference in his case. 

****** 

The ayes and noes were called on the first resolu- 
tion. For it, 154 ; against it, 18 For the second 
resolution, ayes 141, noes 14. 



420 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Dr. Winans said he should go against the'third res- 
olution. The discipline of the church knew no dis- 
cretion in an officer of recognized standing, to with- 
draw himself from the duties of his office. By the 
two votes just passed, it was clear and unequivocal, 
that Bishop Andrew had an unquestioned standing as 
a bishop of the M. E. church, by a vote of a large 
majority of that church, and the provisions of the dis- 
cipline ; and he congratulated the south on the fact 
that they had now a recognized slave-holding bishop, 
whose name appeared on all their records, after being 
known as a slave-holder, and that Bishop A. has no 
right to elect, whether he would serve, or in what way 
he would serve. 

Mr. Cartwright thought his brother Winans shouted 
before he was happy. 

Mr. Winans — I was happy. 

Dr. Cartwright — Yes ; but the brother was only 
happy in the false fires of his own warm imagination. 

The ayes and noes were then taken on the third 
resolution. Several asked to be excused, some retired ; 
and the result of the vote was, ayes 103, noes 67. 

Such, then, was the expulsion of Bishop Andrew. 
A subsequent report of the conference, adopted by a 
vote of 116 to 26, declares on page 232 : 

The action of the general conference was neither 
judicial nor punitive. It neither achieves nor intends a 
deposition — nor so much as a legal suspension ! Bishop 
Andrew is still a bishop ; and should he, against the 
expressed sense of the general conference, proceed to 
the discharge of his functions, his official act would be 
valid .' 

And yet the Methodist clergy tell the people, and 
make them believe it, and have often done it in my 
meetings, that Bishop Andrew was expelled as a 
bishop, for the crime of owning slaves. 

Yours, to expose such lies and hypocrisy, 

Parker Pillsbury. 

Slavery was sometimes called "the peculiar institu- 
tion ; " the "patriarchal institution." An old cotton 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 421 

king, of Boston, visiting the south, talked softly to 
slave-holders about their "unenlightened labor." 
But it remained for the general conference of the 
Methodist-Episcopal church to refine on that, putting 
it in one single word, and that a less offensive word, 
than labor and unenlightened labor, too. Slave-holding 
in Bishop Andrew was but an impediment ! and not 
serious, at that, as it neither deprived him of the hon- 
ors, nor emoluments of his office ; only relieved him 
from its labors and responsibilities. 

But the southern Methodists were no more happy 
than before. Nothing short of the terrible penalty 
inflicted on Bishop Andrew, would placate the north, 
and that with the south seemed only to complicate 
matters more and more. Division, disruption, 
threatened — last year, six or seven thousand church 
members and nearly a hundred ministers, had seceded 
and formed the Weslyan Connection of America, all 
in the good name of anti-slavery. So that was never 
part of the general conference. It was now the slave- 
holder's turn. Nor did they hesitate. The south se- 
ceded, and from that day (1844), onward to and 
through the war of the rebellion, there were both a 
southern and northern general conference. 

But the new Utica movement found no place in 
either, neither desired it. And so there seemed more 
need of it than ever. And yet, from the day of the 
separation, many in the northern conference, minis- 
ters and people, proudly plumed themselves as a 
strictly anti-slavery church, that had shaken off the 
pollutions of slavery. 

But two stern denials must be made of any such 
virtue. The northern conference never left the south- 
ern, still less excommunicated it. The south aban- 
doned the north in part, only in part, for the sake of 



422 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

peace, not the north for the sake of purity. But both 
were disappointed. The south found no peace, the 
north surely purchased no purity, as most stubborn 
facts more than prove. This history is only written, 
not made ; and the testimony is all furnished by the 
parties most concerned themselves. 

The following extract from the proceedings of the 
first meeting of the southern general conference, 
shows how far there had been any change of heart on 
either side, as concerning the sin which John Wesley 
had designated as "the sum of all villainies," and 
Dr. Clark had declared, " Perdition had scarcely ad- 
equate punishment," for such as logically proved them- 
selves the sum of all villains. But here is the extract : 

After the formal adjournment on Monday, Bishop 
Soule requested the members to tarry a few minutes, 
Dr. Winans then read an expression of his feelings 
and that of many of his brethren, who had passed 
through the bounds of a portion of the "northern 
church," for the very kind and affectionate treatment 
they had received from their northern brethren on 
their way to this city. It expresses the hope that, 
although a separation has taken place, whenever a 
southern brother, in the providence of God, shall be 
called to visit a northern city, or place, where there is 
a Methodist pulpit, he may find it open to his ministry, 
and assuring the northern brethren that the like chris- 
tian courtesy shall be always extended to them. The 
document was unanimously adopted and ordered to 
be signed by a committee of the conference. 

And why should it not be ? for the very next year 
but one, we find one of the largest annual conferences, 
the Baltimore, of the north, adopting this resolution : 

jResoIvcrf, That this conference disclaims having any 
fellowship with abolitionism. On the contrary, while 
it is determined to maintain its well-known and long- 
established position, by keeping the traveling preach- 
ers composing its own body, free from slavery, it is also 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 423 

determined not to hold connection with any ecclesias- 
tical body that shall make non-slaveholding a condi- 
tion of membership in the church ; but to stand by 
and maintain the discipline as it is. 

And now for the one overpowering fact of all ; a 
fact which for years after the separation of 1844, con- 
victed multitudes of Methodists, ministers with the 
rest, of an ignorance the most remarkable, or hypoc- 
risy and falsehood the most fearful ever known in all 
the annals of human weakness or wickedness. 

Not only did not the northern hemisphere of the con- 
ference sunder itself from the southern to rid itself of 
the sin and guilt of slavery, but instead, when the south 
withdrew, the north contrived to retain seven or eight 
Annual conferences whose territory was mainly or wholly 
in the slave states in which dwelt four thousand Method- 
ist slave-holders, owning more than twenty-five thousand 
slaves ! 

And that was a body to set itself before men, 
angels and God as an anti-slavery church. Every- 
where, in New England and New York, as well as at the 
west, the anti-slavery agents encountered that 
astounding boast and pretension among the Method- 
ists, both ministers and people. 

I could not myself believe, till I went to the Meth- 
odist book concern in Boston, and purchased the 
book of discipline, now on my desk, and read the 
boundaries of those annual conferences, with my own 
eyes. "Border territory" it is called in the official 
records of that time, but it included Delaware, most, 
or all of Maryland and Virginia, the whole of Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. 

To the resolution of the Baltimore conference just 
cited to show, what northern conference anti-slavery 
was worth as testimony against slave-holding sin, 



424 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

shame and crime, let this be added, and the argu- 
ment shall close : the extracts are from the "Address 
of the Philadelphia annual conference, to the 
societies under its care, within the bounds of the 
Northampton and Accomac circuits." 

Whereas, the discipline says, "Virginia conference 
shall be bounded on the east by Chesapeak Bay and 
the Atlantic Ocean; " and "Philadelphia conference 
shall include the eastern shore of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia " — the Chesapeake Bay, an arm of the ocean 
being between them ; therefore, Resolved, that in our 
administration, we will regard the "eastern shore of 
Maryland and Virginia" as not being "border" work 
in the sense of the " plan of separation." 

We cannot, therefore, but regard all the Methodist 
societies within the peninsula, as under our pastoral 
jurisdiction, according to the provisions of the plan of 
separation. 

If the plan of separation gives us the pastoral care 
of you, it remains to inquire whether we have done 
anything as a conference, or as men, to forfeit your 
confidence and affection. We are not advised that 
even in the great excitement which has distressed you 
for some months past, any one has impeached our 
moral conduct, or charged us with unsoundness in 
doctrine, or corruption, or tyranny in the administra- 
tion of discipline. But we learn that the simple cause 
of the unhappy excitement among you is, that some 
suspect us, or arTect to suspect us, of being abolition- 
ists. Yet, no particular act of the conference, or any 
particular member thereof, is adduced, as the ground 
of the erroneous and injurious suspicion. We would 
ask you, brethren, whether the conduct of our minis- 
try among you for sixty years past, ought not to be 
sufficient to protect us from this charge ? Whether 
the question we have been accustomed for a few years 
past, to put to candidates for admission among us, 
namely, are you an abolitionist? and without each one 
answered in the negative, he was not received, ought 
not to protect us from the charge. Whether the 
action of the last conference on this particular matter, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 425 

ought not to satisfy any fair and candid mind that we 
are not, and do not desire to be, abolitionists. * * 
* * We cannot see how we can be regarded as 
abolitionists without the ministers of the Methodist 
Episcopal church south, being considered in the same 
light. * * * 

Wishing you all heavenly benedictions, we are, dear 
brethren, yours, in Christ Jesus, 

J. P. DURBIN, 

J. Kennaday, 
Ignatius T. Cooper, 
William H. Gilder, 
Joseph Castle, 

Committee. 
Wilmington, Del., April 7, 1847. 

Such was American Methodism in 1836, and onward 
to 1847, and the Philadelphia conference of that year. 
Such was Methodism as held, represented, inculcated 
by the bishops, elders, and rulers in the high places 
of power in that immense spiritual dominion, alike in 
the northern and the southern states. 

But such was not Methodism in the day, nor in the 
mouth of John Wesley. 

On February twelfth, 1772, he wrote in his Jour- 
nal : I read a book of an honest Quaker on that exe- 
crable sum of all villanies, called the slave trade ; I 
read nothing like it in the heathen world, whether 
ancient or modern ; it infinitely exceeds in every 
instance of barbarity, whatever christian slaves suffer 
in Mohamedan countries." 

And a word more from the same hand, shall close 
this too extended chapter on Methodism and slavery. 
He wrote : "What I have said to slave-traders, equally 
concerns all slave-holders, of whatever degree or rank. 
The blood of your brother crieth against you from the 
earth. O, whatever it costs, put a stop to that cry ! 
Your hands, beds, houses, lands, furniture, are stained 
with blood. Surelv it is enough ! 



426 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The anti-slavery character of this denomination is 
pretty clearly set forth in a pamphlet, entitled, 
" Thoughts on the duty of the Episcopal church in 
relation to slavery," by the late William Jay, one of 
its most illustrious members : 

Alas ! for the expectation that she would conform 
to the spirit of her ancient mother. She has not only 
remained a mute and careless spectator of this great 
conflict of truth and justice with hypocrisy and 
cruelty, but her very priests and deacons may be seen 
ministering at the altar of slavery ! Offering their 
talents and influence at its unholy shrine, and openly 
repeating the awful blasphemy that the precepts of 
our Savior sanction the system of American slavery I 
Her northern, free-state clergy, with rare exceptions, 
whatever they may feel on the subiect, rebuke it 
neither in public nor in private. And her periodicals, 
far from advancing the progress of abolitionism, at 
times oppose our societies ; impliedly defending 
slavery, as not incompatible with Christianity, and, oc- 
casionally withholding information useful to the cause 
of freedom. 

As why should they not, or, rather, it might be 
asked, how could they have done otherwise ? pulpit, 
or press, with instructions like the following, issued 
by the oldest bishop in the United States, for their in- 
struction and guidance, though directed, as will be 
seen, to a far more august dignitary than the bishop 

himself : 

Jubilee College, Illinois, N. A., ) 
August 1, A. D. 1846. \ 
To the RigJit Rev. Samuel, Lord Bishop of Oxjord, 
England : 

Very dear Brother in the Lord Jesus — Allow 
me, the oldest bishop of the " Protestant Episcopal 
church" in the United States, to address your lord- 
ship on the subject of a pamphlet, entitled ''A Re- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 427 

proof of the American Church," which "reproof" is 
said to be contained in copious " extracts " from your 
lordship's lately published history of said church. 

Never having read this work from which the said 
" reproof " is drawn, yet from many years' acquaint- 
ance with your lordship's excellent character, 1 can 
say, with full confidence, that the acerbity which is 
spread over the pages of this pamphlet cannot be ap- 
proved by your lordship. * * * 

In the deepest sorrow of heart do I lament the mel- 
ancholy effects produced by the circumstances before 
me. Alas ! what do I see ? The bishops and clergy 
of America censured for that of which they are not 
guilty, and of which they are not the cause, and those 
who censure them evidently unconscious both of the 
evils which their mistaken censure produces, and of 
the extent of the evils which must follow from the 
weight of their character and opinion. 

Before I proceed, I beg leave to state, that, in en- 
deavoring, by mv feeble means, to shield the Prot- 
estant Episcopal church in the United States, I crave 
to be understood as not assuming political ground. 
The Episcopal church in America did in no wise orig- 
inate slavery. She always, in connection with other 
benevolent persons of the day, raised her voice against 
its introduction into the then British colonies. Nor is 
she now, in any competent sense, a part of the civil 
government to cure its temporal evils. Her bishops 
are not, as the English prelates are, admitted to a seat 
in the halls of legislation, nor are they allowed to 
"rise in their places " to plead the cause of humanity. 
All she can do is by her prayers and the preaching of 
the gospel, and teaching the blessed doctrines of 
Christianity, to endeavor to ameliorate the condition 
of the slave ; but, like the primitive christians, 
amidst the evils that surround her, she does not think 
herself called upon to eradicate at once the evil. She 
rather finds herself commanded, as were the servants 
in the gospel, to exercise caution, " lest in eradicating 
the tares, they root out the wheat also." Let both 
grow together, saith our Lord. Let the evil be borne 
for the sake of the good that may be done to the souls 
of the ooor slaves. 



428 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The tenor of these remarks falls in with the exam- 
ple of St. Paul. The gospel through his mouth and 
the power of the divine Spirit had converted the noble 
Philemon from the slavery of sin to the freedom of 
the Son of God. This Philemon's " runaway slave " 
enjoyed the same benefit at the hands of the same 
apostle, some time after, while a prisoner in the city 
of Rome. His name was Onesimus, and while minis- 
tering to the necessities of the holy apostle, he heard 
the word of God, and like his master, believed. It now 
becomes a matter of great importance, in relation to 
the subject of this letter, to know what directions the 
apostle gave to the converted slave of Philemon, when 
he sent him back to his master. Was it that he was a 
freeman in the temporal sense, and must maintain his 
rights as a part of "a whole gospel," Was it that as 
a freeman he was to go back and claim the privileges 
and immunities of this his temporal freedom, as it is 
now understood by the abolitionists ? Was it that 
henceforth he was to consider himself as having a right 
to propogate his sentiments and " preach the whole 
gospel ? That is to say that he had a right to creep into 
his former master's kitchen and fill the heads of all the 
bond servants with the ideas of their temporal rights 
according to this creed, thereby exciting them to rebel- 
lion, and if resisted, (and resisted they certainly would 
be) to murder their kind master and take possession 
of his estate. 

Far, very far, from so wicked an estimate of the 
holy religion unto the blessings and privileges of which 
the apostle had admitted him, this now converted ser- 
vant of the pious Philemon, that he sent the former 
immediately back to serve the latter as heretofore. Not 
a word of abolitionism was uttered in the presence of 
Onesimus, or intimated by the apostle. He entreats 
Philemon to receive his servant back again as a brother 
beloved of Christ, though still a servant, and as such, 
if required, engages to pay the losses he had occasioned 
his master by his leaving him. " If he hath wronged 
thee aught, put that to my account, I Paul have writ- 
ten it with my own hand, I will repay it." How dif- 
ferent this from the language of modern abolitionism. 
Yet this, my Lord, is a part of our Holy Bible. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



429 



Hence it is clearly to be inferred that the relations 
of political society are to continue, be they what they 
may, notwithstanding the most intimate ties of chris- 
tian fellowship. 

Here is another singularly illustrative act, furnished, 
too, as is all the testimony introduced by the church 
herself. In 1836, Rev. George W. Freeman delivered 
two sermons in Raleigh, North Carolina, that were 
published under the imposing title of " The Rights 
and Duties of Slave-holders," with the following im- 
primatur from Bishop Ives, of the diocese : 

Raleigh, Nov. 30, 1836. 
Rev. and Dear Brother — I listened with most un- 
feigned pleasure to the discourses delivered last Sunday, 
on the character ot slavery and the duties of masters 
And as I learn a publication of them is solicited, I beg, 
from a conviction of their being urgently called for at 
the present time, that you will not withhold your con- 
sent. 

Your affectionate friend and brother in the Lord, 

L. S. Ives. 
In South Carolina, the "Society for the Advance- 
ment of Christianity," made up of clergymen and lay- 
men, the bishop at the head of it, seized upon the ser- 
mons, imprimatur and all, and published them as re- 
ligious tracts, for gratuitous distribution. 

An extract from the sermons read thus : " No man, 
or set of men in our day, unless they can produce a 
new revelation from heaven, are entitled to prouounce 
slavery wrong. * * Slavery, as its exists at the 
present day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Provi- 
dence." 

And now one more witness, perhaps most valuable 
of all, and a late bishop, too. On my table is a work 
with this imposing title : 

Sermons addressed to masters and servants, and pub- 
lished in the year 1743, by Rev. Thomas Bacon, minister. 



430 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

of the. Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, now 
republished with other tracts and dialogues on the same 
subject, and recommended to all masters and mistresses 
to be used in their families. By the Reverend William 
Meade. Winchester, Virginia. John Heiskell, printer. 

In his preface, Bishop Meade remarks : "The edi- 
tor of this volume offers it to all masters and mistresses 
in our southern states, with the anxious wish and 
devout prayer that it may prove a blessing to them- 
selves and their households. He considers himself 
most happy in having met with the several pieces 
which compose it, and could not with a quiet con- 
science refrain from affording to others the opportunity 
of profiting thereby." 

The title of this work shows its miscellaneous char- 
acter. The sermons are in two series, the first, doubt- 
less, by Mr. Bacon published in 1743. Then succeed 
two others, author not named, but presumably by 
Bishop Meade himself, and always so assigned while 
he lived. And from them the following excerpts are 
taken. He first shows that God appointed, for great 
and wonderful ends, several offices and degrees in his 
family, making some masters and mistresses, some 
kings and rules, some merchants and sea-faring men, 
some tradesmen, husbandmen and planters and labor- 
ing men to work for their own living, and some He 
hath made servants and slaves to assist and work for 
their masters and mistresses who provide for them. 
And as God hath sent each of us into the world for 
some or other of these purposes, we are all obliged, 
from the king to the poorest slave, to do the business 
He hath set us about. And while you whom He hath 
made slaves are honestly and quietly doing your busi- 
ness and living as poor christians ought to live, you 
are serving God in your low station as much as the 
greatest prince alive. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 431 

With more in the same strain, but not one duty 
specified, not one grace, not one emotion nor aspiration 
that rises above, or relates to any power or person, 
only the master and mistress and their service and 
adoration, as what follows, in the recent bishop's own 
words, abundantly shows : 

When people die, we know of but two places they 
have to go to, and one is heaven, the other hell. Now 
heaven is a place of great happiness, which God hath 
prepared for all that are good, where they shall enjoy 
rest from their labors. And hell is a place of great 
torment and misery, where all wicked people will 
be shut up with the devil and other evil spirits, and be 
punished forever, because they will not serve God. 
If, therefore, we would have our souls saved by 
Christ, if we would escape hell and obtain heaven, we 
must set about doing what he requires of us, that is, 
to serve God. Your own poor circumstances in this 
life ought to put you particularly upon this, and taking 
care of your souls. * * Almighty God hath 
been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you 
nothing but labor and poverty in this world, which 
you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it 
should be so. And think within yourselves what a 
terrible thing it would be, after all" your labors and 
sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the 
next life ; and after wearing out your bodies in service 
here, to go into a far worse slavery when this is over, 
and your poor souls be delivered over into the posses- 
sion of the devil, to become his slaves forever in hell, 
without any hope of ever getting free from it. If, 
therefore, you would be God's freemen in heaven, you 
must strive to be good and serve him here on earth. 
Your bodies, you know, are not your own ; they are at 
the disposal of those you belong to ; but your precious 
souls are still your own, which nothing can take from 
you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, 
that if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked 
lives here, you have got nothing by it in this world, 
and you have lost your all in the next. For your idle- 
ness and wickedness are generally found out, and your 



432 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

bodies suffer for it here ; and what is far worse, if you 
do not repent and amend, your unhappy souls will 
suffer for it hereafter. 

Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to 
your great master in heaven, I now come to lay before 
you the duties you owe to your masters and mistresses 
here upon earth. And for this you have one general 
rule, that you ought always to carry in your minds, 
and that is, to do all service for them, as if you did it for 
God himself. Poor creatures ! you little consider 
when you are idle and neglectful of your master's 
business, when you steal and waste, and hurt any of 
their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, 
when you are telling them lies and deceiving them, or 
when you prove stubborn and sullen, and will not do 
the work you are set about without stripes and vex- 
ation, you do not consider, I say, that what faults you 
are guilty of toward your masters and mistresses, are 
faults done against God himself, who hath set your 
masters and mistresses over you in his own stead, and 
expects that you will do for them just what you would 
do for him. Pray, do not think I want to deceive you, 
when I tell you that your masters and mistresses are 
God's overseers, and that if you are faulty towards 
them, God himself will punish you severely for it in 
the next world, unless you repent. * * You 
are to be obedient and subject to your masters in all 
things. And christian ministers are commanded to 
exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters 
and to please them well in all things. You are to be 
faithful and honest to your masters and mistresses ; 
not purloining nor wasting their goods and substance, 
but showing all good fidelity in all things. Do not your 
masters, under God, provide for you ? And how shall 
they be able to do this, to feed and to clothe you, un- 
less you take honest care of everything that belongs 
to them ? Remember, God requires this of you ; and 
if you are not afraid of suffering for it in this world, 
you cannot escape the vengeance of Almighty God. 

Turning now to the next sermon, page 116 of the 
volume, the bishop expounds, reasons, and argues to 
this effect : 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 433 

"All things whatsoever ye would, that men should do 
unto you, do ye even so unto them ;" that is, do by all 
mankind just as you would desire they should do by 
you, if you were in their place, and they in yours. 

Now, to suit this rule to your particular circum- 
stances ; suppose you were masters and mistresses, 
and had servants under you, would you not desire 
that your servants should do their business faithfully 
and honestly, as well when your back was turned as 
while you were looking over them ? Would you not 
expect that they should take notice of what you said 
to them ? That they should behave themselves with 
respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of 
every thing belonging to you as you would be your- 
selves ? You are servants, do, therefore, as you would 
wish to be done by, and you will be both good servants 
to your masters, and good servants to God, who requires 
this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do 
it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his com- 
mands. * * * Take care that you do not fret, or 
murmur, or grumble at your condition ; for this will 
not only make your life uneasy, but will greatly offend 
Almighty God. Consider that it is not yourselves, it 
is not the people you belong to, it is not the men that 
have brought you to it, but it is the will of God, who 
hath by his providence made you servants, because, 
no doubt he knew that condition would be best for 
you in this world, and help you the better towards 
heaven, if you would but do your duty in it. So that 
any discontent at your not being free, or rich, or 
great as you see some others, is quarreling with your 
heavenly Master, and finding fault with God himself. 
* * * There is only one circumstance which 
may appear grievous, that I shall now take notice of, 
and that is correction. 

Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve 
it, or you do not deserve it. But whether you really 
deserve it or not, it is your duty, and Almighty God 
requires that you bear it patiently. You may, per- 
haps, think that this is hard doctrine, but if you con- 
sider it right, you must needs think otherwise of it. 
Suppose, then, that you deserve correction, you cannot 



434 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

but say that it is just and right, you should meet with 
it. Suppose you do not, or at least, you do not deserve 
so much or so severe a correction for the fault you 
have committed ; you perhaps have escaped a great 
many more, and are at last paid for all. Or suppose 
you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge, 
and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is it not 
possible you may have done some other bad thing 
which was never discovered, and that Almighty God, 
who saw you doing it, would not let you escape with- 
out punishment one time or another ? And ought you 
not in such a case, to give glory to Him, and be 
thankful that he would rather punish you in this life 
for your wickedness, than destroy your souls for it in 
the next life ? But suppose that even this was not 
the case, (a case hardly to be imagined,) and that you 
have by no means, known or unknown, deserved the 
correction you suffered, there is this great comfort in 
it, that if you bear it patiently, and leave your cause 
in the hands of God, he will reward you for it in 
heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here, 
shall turn to your exceeding great glory hereafter. 

So much for Bishop Meade ; his whole volume is a 
wonderful exposition and illumination of the whole 
slave system, as related to, or rather sanctified by the 
American church, almost irrespective of denomination. 
Judge Birney, might have reproduced these extracts 
in his luminous tract on slavery and the church, and 
on them alone, so far as the Episcopal body is con- 
cerned, have rested his case forever. 

The whole volume of Bishop Meade contains two 
hundred and fifty pages of solid apology for, and jus- 
tification of slavery as then existing at the south, in 
the name of the christian religion, its Christ and God. 

No other copy of it has ever come to my knowledge. 
For it, I was indebted to the kindness of my excellent 
friend, Mr. Samuel Brooke, a native Virginian himself. 
He was born a Friend or Quaker, one of a family of 
four or five brothers, all excellent men who early 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 435 

removed into Ohio and became earnest, working abol- 
itionists, eminently hospitable to anti-slavery lecturers, 
both men and women ; besides being large proprietors 
in the underground rail-road ; and frequently running 
its nightly and well loaded trains, themselves. And 
my friend, Samuel Brooke, who gave me Bishop Meade, 
was long an active anti-slavery agent, and for a num- 
ber of years, general agent of the Western Anti-Shiv- 
ery Society, and since slavery was abolished, an officer 
in the revenue department of the government service. 

But a word more on the Protestant Episcopal church 
and its defense and reverend defenders of the terrible 
slave system. For besides Bishop Meade, another 
eminent divine has left us his volume of sermons, now 
on my table. It contains twenty-six discourses, and 
the title-page reads thus : " Sermons preached on 
plantations to congregations of negroes, by the Rev. 
Alexander Glennie, rector of All Saints parish, Wac- 
camaw, S. C, Charleston, S. C. Published and sold 
by A. E. Miller, number 4 Broad street, 1844. 

In his preface, Dr. Glennie says : "The following 
sermons were written for the benefit of the colored 
portion of my flock. As the want of simple sermons, 
suited to the capacity of negroes, is frequently spoken 
of, I have made this selection from among those which 
I have been writing for several years past, and pub- 
lish them in the hope that catechisists and religious 
masters may find them of use." 

The fourth sermon of the twenty-six is precisely in 
tone and sentiment like the quotations from Bishop 
Meade. Readers, therefore, could not be interested 
in them. Let this one exclamation suffice. The text 
is : " With good will doing service as to the Lord 
and not to men." The first utterance is in two lines : 
" In this part of the word of God, servants are taught 



436 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

with what mind they should do their service." And 
then this exclamation : " What a blessed book the 
Bible is, my brethren ! " 

And the law of the state at that moment, punished 
with twenty lashes any slave found in any assembly 
convened for mental instruction, held in any secret 
place, though in presence of white persons. And an 
older law, never repealed, punished with fine of a 
hundred pounds, any person who should teach a slave 
to write. In North Carolina, to teach a slave to read 
or to sell, or give a slave any book, Bible or tract not 
excepted, was thirty-nine lashes, if the offender were 
a free negro ; or, if a white person, a fine of two hun- 
dred dollars. The reason given for this law was 
stated in the preamble, and read, in part, thus : That 
"teaching slaves to read and write tends to excite dis- 
satisfaction in their minds and to produce insurrection 
and rebellion." 

More time and space have been given to the Episco- 
pal church than was intended. Not by any means 
because that was more culpable than the other denom- 
inations ; but the nature of the testimony adduced, 
appeared to throw more and clearer light on the rela- 
tion between master and slave, and between both and 
the church, than almost any other, making incontest- 
ably certain that in church and clerical estimation, 
slaves had no religious rights which white saints were 
bound to respect here ; nor any salvation hereafter, 
but such as must be worked out with " literal fear and 
trembling," in wholly secular service for such masters 
and mistresses as "God had set" to wield the lash 
over them. To just such, and there were then three 
millions of them, and a fourth million being born, 
could Rev. Dr. Glennie, with deep devotion, exclaim : 
" What a blessed book, my brethren, is the Bible ! " 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 437 

But let one more Episcopal bishop come into this 
court of inquiry and investigation ; "the Right Rev. 
George W. Doane, bishop of New Jersey." For there 
may be worse, as well as better men than Dr. Glennie 
and Bishop Meade, and northern men, too. In 1857, 
or near, there was published in Philadelphia, an 
edition of the Episcopal "book of common prayer," 
marked by the authentic imprimatur of Bishop Doane. 
At that time no works of religious art were more ad- 
mired than those of Ary Scheffer, and not one of his 
more than his wonderful and deeply affecting "Chris- 
tus Consolator." The New York Tribune shall tell 
the rest, in an article copied into the National Anti- 
Slavery Standard, of January 2d, 1858 : 

All of our readers, we will venture to assume, are 
familiar with the engraving of Ary Scheffer's famous 
picture, entitled "Christus Consolator." They will 
remember that the Savior is seated with the emblems 
of his divine compassion around him, in the persons 
of the wretched beings whose diseases he had cured, 
or whose sorrows he had ministered unto. There is 
the mother laying her dead infant at the sacred feet, 
the sick man imploring the healing of the Almighty 
touch, the maniac just restored to reason, with his 
broken chain in his deliverer's grasp, the negro slave 
holding out his fettered hands for help and deliver- 
ance. Everybody that has seen it will recall it all. 
Well, the Philadelphia publishers of the prayer-book 
have selected this conception of Scheffer's as an ap- 
propriate ornament of its title-page. And, surely, 
they might have looked very far for a more fitting 
one ; but they thought it needed some emendation 
and expurgation before being put before the eyes of 
dainty christians in this land of churches and of cart- 
whips. The imploring face and the eloquent man- 
acles of the slave might, perchance, disturb the 
devotions of southern saints, and even make the cot- 
ton-stuffed hassocks of many northern brethren un- 
comfortable to their knees. So, to remove this cause 



438 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

of offense out of the way, the prudent publishers, 
while they left all the other monuments of Christ's 
compassion, most carefully expurged the negro. Per- 
haps they thought it was derogatory to the divine 
character of Jesus to suppose him capable of sympa- 
thizing with a nigger. Perhaps they belong to the 
sect of the philosophic (and we dare say pious) John 
Randolph, of Kansas, who denies that negroes have 
souls any more than horses or oxen. More likely, 
their prophetic souls told them that the black face and 
those chained wrists would stand in the way of the 
mercantile transaction they were engaged in with the 
church. We have seen many and base concessions to 
slavery and pro-slavery on the part of publishers at 
the north, but we think that this mutilation of an 
artist's ideal, to suit the prayer-book to the state of the 
slave-market, is rather the meanest, paltriest and dirtiest 
of them all ! 

We would not be understood as implying that either 
the Episcopal church or the prelate who gave his 
sanction to this edition of the Book of Common Prayer 
is responsible for this worse than shabby trick. What- 
ever faults may have been attributed to Bishop Doane 
we believe that he was always in favor of the admis- 
sion of the colored churches to equal right of repre- 
sentation in the conventions of the church, during the 
long struggles of Mr. John Jay (erroneously printed 
William on page 426) to effect what justice and 
canonical regularity alike demanded. And we be- 
believe, too, that the section of the Episcopal church 
usually distinguished as the high church, in this city 
and in Boston, and perhaps generally in the free 
states, set an example of christian spirit in this regard, 
which their dissenting opponents might well follow. 
In the city of Boston, we happen to know, while a 
prominent Baptist church makes it a condition in the 
deeds of the pews that they shall be forfeited if sold to a 
Baptist with a colored skin, the Church of the Advent, 
embracing many persons distinguished for genius, cul- 
ture, refinement and wealth, not only admits black men 
and women to a perfect equality of sittings, but ac- 
tually seeks them out to invite them to come in. And 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



439 



we believe the same christian spirit of equality before 
God prevails among the high churchmen of this city, 
also. This sneaking act of servility we attribute solely 
to the publishers, and we have told of it merely as a 
proof of the all-pervading influence of slavery, and of 
the opinion of the Philadelphia printers as to its 
supremacy in the church. The sensitive nerve of the 
pocket answered to the sensibility of the slave-holding 
conscience, and hence this despicable toad-eating, 
even in the presence of God himself. 

No southern sect was more zealous in giving what 
was called " religious instruction" to slaves than the 
Episcopalians. And by many, as has been shown, it 
was held that the slaves should be taught to read the 
book, to see for themselves that it was God and not 
man, the Bible not the laws nor constitution that au- 
thorised and ordained slavery ! And so why should 
Ary Scheffer's picture contradict the doctrine and im- 
pertinently disturb the consciences of the slave-holding 
bishops and christians in New Jersey or in the south- 
ern states ? 

Of the lesser denominations composing the Ameri- 
can church or churches, it may be sufficient to say 
that generally they supported the dominant political 
parties and their policy toward slavery, including, as 
has already been shown, the execution of the fugitive 
slave law to the end. The one exception was the old 
school Scotch Covenanters, few indeed and extremely 
sectarian, but their doctrine and practice on war as 
well as slavery, were always respected and honored by 
the abolitionists. 

The Friends, or Quakers, permitted no slave-hold- 
ing among members. But neither the duelling, slave- 
holding, nor other known vices of Henry Clay, nor 
the bloody and barbarous war record of Zachary Tay- 
lor, besides being a very large slave-owner, prevented 



44° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

a large proportion of the Quakers of the country from 
supporting them as candidates for the presidency of 
the United States. The Unitarians and Universalists 
denied the sacramental fellowship to none, deeming 
the table their Lord's and not their own. So a slave- 
holder might presume to approach unforbidden. But 
it was ever the opinion of at least one anti-slavery 
apostle, that if a persistent horse thief or notorious 
counterfeiter had made too bold approach, that, were 
it only for the decency and respectability of the thing, 
the question of expediency and propriety would not 
have been deemed irrelevant or out of order. But 
abolitionists as such never interfered with any denom- 
inational doctrines or doings, only so far as they 
might affect favorably or unfavorably the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves. 

The Free Will Baptists, too, like the Quakers, 
claimed exemption from the guilt of slave owning, 
and in 1839, at Coneaut, Ohio, refused to ordain a 
slave-holder to the ministry, and voted that " with 
sorrow of heart we learn that slavery is tolerated, de- 
fended and practiced in the christian church." But 
the whole truth soon disclosed that they could do 
much more than call slave-breeders, slave-traders and 
slave-holders the "Christian church." In New Hamp- 
shire and Maine, where their great strength lay, they 
reviled the anti-slavery movement, and expelled both 
ministers and members for anti-slavery fidelity. This 
very hour I spoke with one of them, a man of most 
unspotted christian character, and to this time, a 
faithful and able minister of the New Testament. No 
democracy in slavery's darkest days was too foul for 
Free Will Baptist embrace. The democratic party 
long ruled Maine and New Hampshire, as it could not 
have done but for the vote of that denomination. One 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 441 

of its ministers insolently boasted to me that every 
voting member in his church belonged to the demo- 
cratic party, and he himself had held distinguished 
civil office as a working member of the party. In all 
these denominations just named, I knew many, or 
some most honorable exceptions, to be sure not many 
in all, and among the very best and bravest, some were 
leading clergymen. 

Of the Campbellites or Disciples, not so good ac- 
count can be given. They were little known in New 
England or New York. But where they were found 
generally, though not quite always, they were on the 
side of the oppressor. Their principal leader, if not 
founder, was Rev. Alexander Campbell, and he was 
also editor and controller of the Millennial Harbinger, 
the denominational organ. In that, Dr. Campbell 
wrote thus : 

" Is the simple relation of master and slave neces- 
sarily and essentially immoral and unchristian, as that 
for example of the adulterer and adulteress ? We are 
clearly and satisfactorily convinced it is not. It would 
be, in our most calm and deliberate judgement, a 
sin against every dispensation of religion, — Patriar- 
chal, Jewish and Christian, — to suppose that the re- 
lationship of master and slave was, in its very nature 
and being, a sin against God and man." 

In May of the same year he declares further : 

" There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting 
slavery, but many regulating it. It is not, then, we 
conclude, immoral. 

" The discipline of the church is the only discipline 
under which christian slaves can be placed by christian 
masters. If they will not faithfully serve their chris- 
tian masters, who 'p arta l<e of the benefit' of their 
labors, then are they, after proper instruction and ad- 



442 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

monition, to be separated from the church, and to be 
put under whatever other discipline a christian master 
under the existing laws of the state, may inflict." * * 

* " To preserve unity of spirit among 

christians of the south and of the north is my grand 
object, and for that purpose I am endeavoring to show 
that the New Testament does not authorize any inter- 
ference or legislation upon the relation of master and 
slave, nor does it, either in letter or spirit, authorize 
christians to make it a term of communion. 

"Every man who loves the American Union, as 
well as every man who desires a constitutional end 
of American slavery, is bound to prevent, as far as 
possible, any breach of communion between christians 
at the south and at the north." 

So far Dr. Campbell. Dr. Shannon, president of 
Bacon college, an eminent Disciple authority, also 
wrote a Bible argument for slavery, with this conclu- 
sion : 

" Thus did Jehovah stereotype his approbation of 
domestic slavery, by incorporating it with the institutions 
of the Jewish religion, the only religion on earth that 
had the Divine sanction." 

In paying attention to the Free Will Baptists it 
seemed proper to refer to their democratic tenden- 
cies at a time when that party ruled supreme and 
slavery enjoyed the full benefit. The Campbellites 
were similarly patriotic, and appear to have so con- 
tinued, even to the very last presidential election, as 
the following passage from the famous " Dorsey-Gar- 
field correspondence " proves : 

On August 30, 1 881, Mr. Garfield wrote thus : " If 
we carry Indiana in October, the rest is comparatively 
easy. We shall make a very serious, perhaps fatal, 
mistake if we do not throw all our available strength 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 443 

into that state. I have taken great pains to ascertain 
the situation of the parties there, not from extensive- 
correspondence alone, but I have sent intelligent and 
trustworthy observers to various parts of the state to 
make special enquiries on various aspects of the con- 
test- * * From twenty-five thousand to thirty 
thousand voters of Indiana are members of the denom- 
ination of Disciples, and at least half of them are dem- 
ocrats ! A quiet, but very earnest movement, wholly 
outside the state committee, has been organized, and 
is being vigorously and judiciously pushed, with the 
strongest probability that at least two thousand five 
hundred changes of votes in our favor will result. 
* 1 went over the whole ground with Sen- 
ator Dorsey when he was here en route for Chicago, 
and his letters since his arrival there strongly confirm 
my opinion. 

No comment is needed here. My own experience 
among " Disciples," not only in Indiana and Ohio, 
where they were very numerous in the hottest days of 
the anti-slavery conflict, but in other parts of thew r est, 
induced me to believe that not only were "at least 
half of them democrats," but that they were very far 
from being of the highest order even of the demo- 
cratic party. 

One personal encounter I well remember. My trav- 
eling companions and myself, three or four in all, went 
on a beautiful October Saturday to Hiram, the seat 
of the college of which Mr. Garfield was principal and 
head, to commence in the afternoon a strictly moral 
and religious anti-slavery meeting to hold over Sun- 
day. But in the afternoon a crowd of the pupils got 
possession of the house, and behaved in so vile and 
vulgar a manner as to prevent our being heard, and 
before night we were glad to leave the place. 



444 ACTS 0F ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The Millennial Harbinger was law and gospel there 
to all intents and purposes, coming fresh from Vir- 
ginia, then the land of whips, chains and red hot 
branding irons, and all the frightful paraphernalia and 
appointments for slave-breeding and slave-trading, as 
well as slave-holding. Virginia, where so late as 1849 
a law was enacted making it criminal to teach any 
slave or free colored person to read or write. Vir- 
ginia, where the kind-hearted Margaret Douglass was 
imprisoned for teaching some free colored children to 
read only the New Testament and catechism. Vir- 
ginia, under whose soil ran the roots of Preceptor Gar- 
field's Hiram college, whose students, studying under 
the afterwards President Garfield, could, and did, 
wantonly, wickedly, maliciously, under a bright Octo- 
ber sun, enter, break up and scatter a strictly moral, 
peaceful, religious, anti-slavery convention, and com- 
pel those who had come to hold it, to leave the town ! 

THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. 

This society was organized in 1816, its object being 
" to encourage a wider circulation of the Bible without 
note or comment," using only the then accepted ver- 
sion, and its field was the world, as opportunity and 
resources permitted. The slave states had some aux- 
iliary societies, though in most, if not every one of 
them, a sixth part of the people were prohibited, under 
heavy penalties, from being taught to read. True the 
slaves were held amenable to the law, and seventy 
offenses which they might commit were punishable 
with death ! And in the election of president and 
members of congress the masters were permitted to 
count three-fifths of the slaves as free men and cast 
their votes for them accordingly ; and in the year 
1837, many millions of surplus revenue were distribu- 
ted among the states on the same unjust and unrigh- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SI AVI. k\ VPOSTLES. 445 

teous principle, giving six slave states nearly seven 
million dollars ; while Pennsylvania, with a free pop- 
ulation larger than all six of them, received less than 
four million dollars. 

But the parent Bible society never reckoned even a 
fractional humanity in slaves. So far as reading and 
writing were concerned, it just plunged the whole 
slave population down to the dead level of brute 
beasts, as will be shown. Strange confusion would 
sometimes result from a state of society so unnatural, 
so monstrous. In 1841, a little Bible auxiliary soci- 
ety existed in New Orleans, and one of its distribu- 
ting agents was overheard asking a group of slaves if 
they could read or write, or wanted a Bible ? He was 
immediately arrested as an incendiary and carried to 
court. His name was Chauncey B. Black, and the New 
Orleans Picayune, of August 12, 1841, gives a minute 
account of the trial. The accuser was William H. 
Avery ; the magistrate was Mr. Recorder Baldwin, 
and Mr. Maybin, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Stevens, Mr. 
Goodrich, and Rev. Mr. Wheaton, (good Massachu- 
setts names) were summoned to testify. 

The accused stated that he was agent of the Bible 
society, and that he was appointed by Mr. Lowndes, 
one of the prominent members of it. He said he was 
then engaged in taking the names only, of such per- 
sons as stood in need of the Bible and would accept 
it from the society, and entered on his list indiscrim- 
inately white and colored, free persons and slaves. 

The witnesses admitted their organization and ob- 
jects; had raised a thousand dollars already, and 
ordered books from the parent depository in New 
York to that amount ; some in German, French and 
Spanish, as well as in the English language, but they 



446 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

declared " it never for one moment entered into the 
mind of the society to present one single Bible to a 
slave." 

Mr. Lowndes distinctly stated, and impressed it 
strongly on the mind of the court, " that before any 
Bibles were distributed to those whose names might 
be taken by the accused, the list was to be first sub- 
mitted to him. And as it was opposed to his own 
feelings, and contrary to the intention of the society, 
he would certainly furnish no Bible to any slave." 

" The strongest, most satisfactory evidence was 
given that the accused bore an excellent character ; 
and that in speaking to the slaves at all he acted from 
a misconception of the instructions of Mr. Lowndes, 
and an ignorance of his duties as an agent of the Bible 
society." 

A Mr. Micon was counsel for the accused, and made 
a good and successful defense. 

"The Recorder briefly addressed the prisoner, told 
him he highly approved the laudable work of distribu- 
ting the Bible, in which he was engaged. But while 
executing that duty, he must be cautious not to in- 
fringe on other rights which are as saered to tins eom- 
munity as religion itself. Believing that in speaking to 
the slaves he was actuated by no evil intention, he 
would discharge him, bidding him God-speed in his 
religious career, and cautioning him against ever 
bringing himself in contact with our institutions." 

The latest Louisiana enactment on the teaching of 
slaves letters which I can find was in 1830, to this 
purport : 

" Any person who shall attempt to teach any free 
person of color or slave to spell, read or write, shall, 
upon conviction thereof, be imprisoned not less than 
one, nor more than twelve months." 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 447 

But what shall be said to this provision for oral in- 
struction, in that same Louisiana ? According to 
Judge Stroud, quoting First Martin's Digest, 610 : 
" It shall be the duty of every owner to procure for 
his sick slaves all kinds of temporal and spiritual as- 
sistance which their situation may require." 

Here truly was death-bed repentance contemplated, 
distancing in extremity that of the thief on the cross. 
But there were many at the south, as has already been 
intimated, who believed that the slaves should have 
the Bible, and be taught to read it. The reason given 
was that it would tend to make and keep them contented 
with their lot in bondage, to know that it was all by di- 
vine appointment ! 

In the year 1854, at the Abbeville, South Carolina, 
district Bible society anniversary, this subject was 
agitated, and had earnest and extended discussion. 
This society was organized in 1823, and had, in 1854, 
seven working auxiliary associations. At the anniver- 
sary of that year, a principal address appears to have 
been delivered by Robert A. Fair, Esq., and published 
in the society proceedings, under this heading : 

"The christian duty of placing the Bible in the 
hands of the negro, and teaching him to read it." 

A few passages from that discourse will be both in- 
structive and interesting : 

If the teachings of holy writ were at war with the 
institution of slavery, and we were struggling to 
maintain it in opposition to those teachings ; or if the 
proposition were to put the slave in possession of a 
knowledge of the arts and sciences — to confer a high 
degree of intellectual culture — fully to educate him, 
we might be disposed to yield the point. But how 
stands the case ? Why, that the teachings of the Bible 
are not only not unfriendly to the institution of sla- 
very, but that in those teachings, the institution is 



44& ACTS OF ANTI-SI. AVERY APOSTLES. 

most amply recognized. It is upon them that we tri- 
umphantly rest its defense. 

That question being settled beyond dispute, the in- 
genious orator proceeds": 

We would not be startled at the announcement of 
the fact that two-thirds of our slave population do 
not know or believe that the subject of slavery, or 
their condition, is ever alluded to in the Bible — that 
two-thirds of them are ignorant of the authority by 
which we essay to hold them in bondage, or demand 
at their hands obedience and service. To such, how 
galling is the yoke ! How bitter is the bondage ! 

So much for the slaves and the Bible. Now for the 
masters. For the humane, Mr. Fair does not forget 
to deal Fairly by both parties. As, for example : 

Nor would we be startled at the announcement of 
the fact that many masters are ignorant of any scrip- 
tural view of the subject — ignorant of the true 
grounds upon which to place the institution and the 
duties of masters ; which ignorance betrays them into 
many errors and abuses, the tendency of which is to 
undermine the institution. Now, relieve the minds of 
both parties of their ignorance and darkness, and 
thoroughly educate and indoctrinate them into clear, 
sound, intelligent scriptural views of the whole subject, 
and of what an immense weight will the institution be 
relieved ! and of what a burden will the bosoms of 
slaves, and the minds of masters be relieved ! 

Here are the motives, reasons for teaching both 
masters and slaves the scriptural doctrine of chattel 
slavery. That both may know that God and the Bible 
were at the bottom of the whole horrible system. 

But what said the parent organization, " the Amer- 
ican Bible society," now under our consideration, to 
such reasoning and such religion ? It said, through 
its secretary, and the Monthly Record, organ of the 
society, just this : 

This subject of furnishing Bibles to slaves, is one 
of vast importance and will receive more of the at- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 449 

tention of our southern auxiliaries than heretofore. 
I find that the recent excellent address, delivered in 
South Carolina, and reprinted in part in our February 
Record, has been widely read, and so far as I have 
learned, meets the approval of the christian com- 
munity. 

But the Southern Presbyterian reviews Mr. Fair with 
great severity — disagrees with him altogether, thus : 

We insist that the laws are imperiously demanded 
by a regard to the public safety. Is there any great 
moral reason why we should incur the tremendous 
risk of having our wives and children slaughtered, in 
consequence of our slaves being taught to read in- 
cendiary publications ? * * * Mr. Fair seems 
to be uninformed of the fact that the scriptures are 
read in our churches every sabbath day. And these 
very passages which inculcate the duties of masters 
and slaves, in consequence of their textual connec- 
tion, are more frequently read than other portions of 
the book. 

It is worthy of note that Mr. Fair is not a clergy- 
man. Possibly, the editor of the Presbyterian is not. 
But he evidently belongs to the church militant, and 
holds statute law forbidding slaves to read such "in- 
cendiary publications" as Isaiah, and the sermon on 
the mount, as absolutely needful for the safety of " the 
throats of the wives and children of slave-holders." 

Such, at that time, was the American Bible society 
and its auxiliaries, judged by the declarations and tes- 
timonies of its organs and officers. Its own friends, 
and no othe/s. 

THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

And now we touch bottom, if ever, in sounding the 
depths of clerical devotion to slavery. To the Tract 
society, ministers, always its controlling, governing in- 
fluence, especially in the publication department, the 



45° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

slave-holder could well have sung, in the strain of 
King Solomon : 

" Many daughters have done virtuously, 
But thou e.xcellest them all." 

The Bible society could say it was instituted for one 
sole, specific purpose, to disseminate the scriptures, 
" without note or comment." The tract society was 
chartered : 

"To diffuse the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ as the redeemer of sinners, and to promote the 
interests of vital godliness and sound morality, by the 
circulation of religious tracts, calculated to receive 
the approbation of all evangelical christians." 

And so, when asked to testify in one little sheet, 
against slavery, as was asked by thousands of church 
members and contributors to its funds, were it " only 
so much as quotations from scripture, bearing on the 
various elements of oppression which enter into sla- 
very, it dared to refuse, on the simple ground that all 
tracts were to receive the approbation of all evangel- 
ical christians." And how could slave-holders ap- 
prove even scripture protest against their patriarchal 
institution ? 

Indeed, the time came, when not only whole 
churches and their ministers protested against the 
course of this society, but even state ecclesiastical as- 
sociations earnestly petitioned, as well as solemnly 
protested, in relation to the subject. It was the gen- 
eral association of Michigan that asked, with but a 
single dissenting vote, for the scripture tract against 
slavery. For only " so much as the naked Bible texts 
against it." In one instance, the answer was soured 
with an insolence worthy the plantation itself. "If 
the southern churches remain evangelical churches, 
and southern christians are evangelical christians, it 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 451 

is their right, and your duty, to abstain from publishing 
efoen truths, the publication of which, they would not 
approve. 

But instead of dwelling on the controversy, which 
for a long time only worried the society, and its nearly 
harmless opponents, and which would neither expiate 
the tediousness nor reward our toil, let us glance a 
little at some of the society action in various ways to 
shield the bloody idol from the attacks of the earnest, 
upright and downright abolitionists, whose word and 
work were always, not only respected by the south, 
but greatly feared ; as our New York and Boston anti- 
slavery anniversaries always showed, to the very last. 

Besides tracts, the society published, for cheap sale 
or gratuitous distribution, many bound volumes, and 
sometimes they contained sentiments quite blasphe- 
mous to the worship of the slave-holding Moloch. 
These were always, with wondrous prudence and fore- 
sight, suppressed. Some of these works were English, 
and copy-righted, too. But that made no difference. 
They were not only "pirated," as it was called, but 
most unrighteously perverted (and for most piratical 
purposes, too), from the author's meaning. Instead 
of denying, the publishing committee defended what 
they did : they defended it in one of their annual re- 
ports, thus : " We do expunge whatever the christians 
of the south would regard as untruthful, harsh, or de- 
nunciatory." 

Here, now, is an instance. The well-known work, 
by the eminent Dr. Harris, of London, on covetous- 
ness, entitled : " Mammon," a prize essay, was thus 
seized and published by the tract society, with this 
slight, but, to slave-holders, terribly significant omis- 
sion. The author, showing the immoral influence of 
covetousness, said : " Its history is the history of 



452 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

slavery and oppression, in all ages." " Evangelica 
christians at the south," might stand "oppression," 
but "slavery," never. And so "oppression" was re- 
tained, but not " slavery." 

Another English work, republished by the society, 
was entitled, " Habitual exercise of love to God," by 
Joseph John Gurney, an eminent preacher of the 
society of Friends. It was remarkable that the society 
should have taken up a work of such an arch heretic 
as a Quaker preacher. But so it did, and mutilated 
it to this extent. On page 142, the author reaches a 
conclusion thus : 

Had this love always prevailed among professing 
christians, where would have been the sword of the 
crusader ? where the African slave trade ? where the 
odious system which permits man a property in his 
fellow man, and converts rational beings into market- 
able chattels ? 

The tract society makes this sentence read like this : 
Listen ! 

If this love had always prevailed among professing 
christians, where would have been the sword of the 
crusader ? where the tortures of the inquisition ? where 
every system of oppression and wrong by which he 
who has the power revels in luxury and ease, at the 
expense of his fellow men ? 

Another foreign book was " Life of Mary Lundie 
Duncan, of Scotland. On one occasion, she had 
listened with youthful ardor and sympathy, to the elo- 
quence of the distinguished orator, as well as aboli- 
tionist, and, subsequently, member of parliament, 
George Thompson. She afterwards wrote this, 
which the tract society suppressed from her work : 

We have lately been much interested in the emanci- 
pation of the slaves. I never heard eloquence more 
overpowering than that of George Thompson. I am 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 453 

most thankful that he has been raised up. O that the 
measure soon to be proposed in parliament, may be 
successful ! " 

Later, when he was about to visit the United States, 
at the earnest desire of Garrison and other abolition- 
ists, to plead the cause of the American slave, Mrs. 
Duncan addressed him as, "George Thompson, the 
eloquent pleader for the abolition of slavery ; " and 
closed her communication with these strains : 

" Yet go, heaven-favored hero, go ! 

Pursue your glorious plan ; 
Abridge the weight of human woe, 
And raise the slave to man. 

" Heaven bless your cause ! Your country's prayers, 
Attend you o'er the sea ! 
Go break the chain that slavery wears, 
And bid the oppressed go free ! " 

All this, and much more was most unrighteously 
suppressed by the mendacious publication committee 
of the Tract Society ! 

Mrs. Lundie was in New York when this memoir of 
her daughter was already in the hands of that com- 
mittee ; and it was well understood that she was 
called upon by one of the secretaries and modestly 
asked, even urged to consent to the mutilations. But 
she persistently declined ; the lines being peculiarly 
precious to her for their sentiment, and for her dear 
daughter's sake. The shameless omissions were how- 
ever made, reckless of all truth and right, regardless 
of a mourning mother's feelings, and tenderest love ! 

One other of these marvelous changes, and mon- 
strous omissions, is all for which time, space, and 
patience can permit. 

Dr. Cotton Mather, so well known in Puritan his- 
tory, among his voluminous writings, left one entitled, 
Essays to do good," and here is a passage : 



454 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

O that the souls of our slaves were more regarded 
by us ; that we might give a better demonstration 
that we despise not our own souls, by doing what we 
can for the souls of our slaves ! How can we pre- 
tend to Christianity, when we do no more to christian- 
ize our slaves ? 

But the Tract Society carefully, prudently, printed 
the word servants, instead of slaves! 

And the following whole paragraph was most 
wickedly suppressed : 

But if any servant of God may be so honored by 
Him as to be made the successful instrument of 
obtaining' from a British Parliament, an act for the 
christianizing of the slaves on the plantations, then it 
may be hoped something more may be done, than has 
yet been done, that the blood of souls may not be 
found in the skirts of our nation. A controversy 
with heaven and our colonies may be removed, and 
prosperity may be restored ; or however the honorable 
instrument will have unspeakable peace and joy in the 
remembrance of his endeavors. In the meantime, the 
slave trade is a spectacle which shocks humanity. 

" The harmless natives basely they trepan 
And barter baubles for the soul of man. 
The wretches, they to christian climes bring o'er. 
To serve worse heathen than they did before ! " 

Such were the suppressions and changes made by 
the Tract Society in reproducing the " Essays to do 
good," more than a hundred years after they were 
written. One other fact should be stated here which 
even adds to the audaciousness of the whole proceed- 
ing. For a long time the work was out of print. It 
was afterwards reissued in England ; and slavery 
having already been abolished there, the allusions to 
it were for that reason omitted. But the editor in a 
foot note, stated what they were, and why they were 
omitted. That edition was followed in this country ; 
but not the notes ; the English editor omitting the 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 



455 



passages because they were inapplicable to his coun- 
try, and giving his reasons; the Tract Society omit- 
ting them because they were applicable, in dreadful 
sense, and saying nothing about it ! 

For some of these startling statements and facts, 1 
am indebted to a masterly letter of remonstrance sent 
by the unanimous vote of the Fourth Congregational 
church in Hartford, Conn., to the officers and direct- 
ors of the American Tract Society. The letter was 
prepared by a committee consisting of the pastor of 
the church, Rev. Wm. H. Patton, John Hooker, Esq., 
an eminent lawyer of Hartford, husband of the well, 
and widely known Mrs. Elizabeth Beecher Hooker, 
and Mr. Milo Doty. It was published in a tract form 
of thirty-four closely printed pages, and circulated to 
the number of several thousands. In 1855, the stereo- 
type plates were generously presented to the American 
Tract Society, and the work was immediately adopted 
as No. 16 of its tract publications. 

But to the old Tract Society, the mighty appeal was 
of small account; it had already received thousands of 
similar substance and disposed of them after its pleas- 
ure. It is only too certain that its officers knew very 
well the quality of the remonstrants, especially their 
leaders and directors. I have already more than 
intimated that they were not of formidable or danger- 
ous character to the slave-holding communion, and 
their northern allies and abettors. When the Ameri- 
can churches were proved "the bulwarks of American 
slavery," and its "forlorn hope," indeed, by testimony 
immovable as earth's foundations, the abolitionists 
came out of them as their only escape from the sin 
and its plagues. But the " new organization " anti- 
slavery as it was called, did not come out from among 
the slave-holders ; and the American Tract Society 



456 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

knew it, and knew they had no intention of such sep- 
aration. The directors of the American board of 
foreign missions knew it, and the Baptist board, and 
the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. There were some pretended separations, and 
we have seen to what purpose. The tract society 
saw to what purpose, at the time, and knew just what to 
expect ; and the society was not disappointed. 

There was a seeming separation among the support-' 
ers of the American Tract Society. 

It should be said here that the original tract 
society was organized and incorporated in Massachu- 
setts with head quarters at Andover.. In 1823, its 
name was changed from New England Religious 
Tract, to American Tract Society. In 1825, the 
American Tract Society was incorporated in New 
York under a new charter, the Massachusetts society 
becoming a branch of it : but surrendered all its 
stereotype plates and publications to the new society, 
with agreement that it should be furnished with all 
the publications it required, at cost not greater than 
it had been before. This union continued till 1859 ; 
then, in consequence of the dissatisfaction of many 
members, and some officers, (expressed like the 
Hartford and other letters,) because the society would 
not publish tracts disapproving of American slavery, 
the Boston society withdrew and resumed its 
former independent position. And what readers 
must desire to know is, exactly what position did the 
Boston department assume and sustain towards the 
parent stock at New York, from which they had 
sawed themselves off, and that had been deliberately 
guilty of the outrages just revealed and exposed, and 
which the remonstrants themselves urged with such 
power as motive and reason for their final withdrawal. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 457 

Among the many writers, whether as editors of 
periodicals or authors of reports of societies, or of con- 
ventions, or of tracts, or larger works on slavery and 
kindred themes, the anti-slavery conflict produced no 
one of finer quality, everyway, especially for patient, 
untiring industry and perseverance, clear, calm and 
ever conscientious judgment of men and of parties, 
whether political or religious, than Mr. Charles K. 
Whipple. To his sterling faithfulness, energy and 
perseverance, editors, lecturers and other writers and 
workers were often indebted for facts, statements and 
statistics, inevitable to their success. His exhaustive 
work on the relations to slavery of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in nearly 
two hundred and fifty large pages, closely printed in 
fine type, compiled wholly from its own annual reports 
and other official documents, was a labor greater than 
has made the fame and fortune, too, of many authors 
of our day. 

And his invaluable tract of twenty-four well-filled 
pages on the two Tract societies after the separation, 
and their relations towards each other, should have cov- 
ered with blushes of shame the faces of all who pre- 
tended to anti-slavery character, only in consideration 
of such repentance and reformation as that fully and 
faithfully disclosed. The dissenters were numerous, 
and doubtless many were earnest and sincere. Thirty 
auxiliary bodies, thirteen being states, or their equiv- 
alent, could not all have been pretended. But we 
shall see into what they were led, and out of what they 
unfortunately were not led. They did at last compel 
the Darent society to lend an ear to their petitions 
and protests, and a committee of fifteen, ten being 
ministers, and nearly all well-known friends of the 
society and approvers of its former unrighteous courses, 



458 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

was appointed to make inquiry and investigation into 
what too many already knew. And all who did know 
should have been ashamed. 

Subsequently that committee reported to this effect : 

Resolved, That the action of the executive, as re- 
ported, be approved. 

A long debate ensued. Various substitutes and 
amendments were offered and rejected, and finally 
the original resolution, which was presented by Bishop 
Mcllvaine, was adopted, by a vote of the great major- 
ity of the members and directors present. 

And immediately following this action of entire ap- 
proval of their former course, in the completest pos- 
sible manner, the whole board of officers was re- 
elected : 

And now the question is as to the course of the re- 
monstrants, "Thirty auxiliary bodies in all, thirteen 
of them representing states or other large districts." 

Their first resolution at their meeting in Boston 
directed the executive committee to report next year 
on "the expendiency of dissolving the connection be- 
tween this society and the National Society at New 
York." No hurry, it seems. "Next year " will do. 
And then the inquiry will only be as to "the expedi- 
ency " of the step. And now for their fourth resolu- 
tion to this purport : 

Resolved, That we entertain the highest respect for 
the wisdom, judgment and sincerity of the special com- 
mittee of fifteen, appointed by the American Tract 
Society of New York, at the annual meeting of 1856, 
and do heartily adopt the resolutions reported by 
them, and declare our purpose to carry into effect the 
principles embraced in those resolutions. 

Why not then have held their peace and kept to 
their work ? Entertaining " the highest respect for 
the wisdom, judgment and sincerity of that committee 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 459 

of fifteen," why not have let them alone ? How would 
that committee have looked turning round and pass- 
ing a like admiration "for the wisdom, judgment and 
sincerity," especially sincerity of those dissenters? 
But to give facts, not comments on them, is our pres- 
ent business. 

Here is another of the declarative resolutions of the 
disaffected : 

Resolved, That the political aspects of slavery lie 
entirely without the proper sphere of this society and 
cannot be discussed in its publications ; but that those 
moral duties which grow out of its existence, as well 
as those moral evils which it is known to promote, 
and which are condemned in scripture, and so much 
deplored by evangelical christians, do undoubtedly 
fall within the province of this society, and can and 
should be discussed in a fraternal and christian spirit. 

One more quotation will be sufficient, and more than 
sufficient for the purposes of this work. 

Passing over much which might be cited from this 
annual report of the Boston society, [its forty-fourth] 
take the following from the official " Address of the 
executive committee to the friends of the society, in 
the following July, a few weeks after their anniversary. 
They say : 

It may be well to state that the organic relations of 
this society to the New York society have not been 
materially changed by the above resolutions. This 
society may therefore be made the channel for the 
contributions of all persons who, for any reason, may 
prefer our position or our policy to that of the other 
society. * * We invite no separation from 
that society, but under present circumstances we be- 
lieve the greatest amount of good will be done by each 
society occupying the whole country as its field. We 
are not an anti-slavery society, but simply a religious 
tract society. We earnestly entreat the churches of 
our Lord Jesus Christ no longer to permit this im- 



460 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

portant enterprise to decline because of divers views 
on the various questions arising out of the slave sys- 
tem, the time and occasion for that having passed ; as 
two societies now offer their facilities for conveying 
the gospel of Christ in this form to those whoso much 
need that gospel. 

And this voluminous and tedious testimony is but 
a specimen of what might be adduced ; and to what then 
do all these confessions amount ? In the first place 
the new association of dissenters declares in so many 
words, " We are not an anti-slavery society, but sim- 
ply a religious tract society." Only that, and nothing 
more. And what was the New York Society, but just 
that, and nothing less ? 

Another confession is : " The organic relations of 
this society to the New York, have not been materially 
changed." And another : " We invite no separation 
from the New York society." And this one more, 
most remarkable of all, explaining why neither is, nor 
should be an anti-slavery society, nor pretend to be ; 
as it is only "certain moral duties which grow out of 
the existence of slavery, as well as those moral evils 
which it is known to promote, that lie within our 
proper sphere." What is this but flat denial that sla- 
very in itself is sin at all ? Drunkenness, in itself, is 
no evil. Is it ? Nor adultery, any more than mar- 
riage. Is it ? 

The old tract society published testimonies solemn 
as judgment, heaven and hell, against intemperance, 
novel-reading, card-playing, horse-racing, theater- 
going, and chewing and smoking tobacco. But to de- 
grade men and women to brute beasts, goods and 
chattels, and then treat them accordingly, as did the 
Bible and tract societies, not counting them as families 
at all, that was no sin. Both societies proposed to 
supply states or counties, cities or towns, as the case 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 461 

might be, with their works, " every family willing to 
receive them." And reported every family so sup- 
plied, when they knew, and everybody knew, that to 
sell or give a Bible or tract to any slave, and in some 
states, to any free person of color, was a penal offense 
and sure to be sorely punished by the statute law ! 
The old society knew it had nothing to fear from the 
new, and trusted it accordingly. Dr. Nehemiah 
Adams, of Boston, had published two volumes of most 
unblushing vindication of slavery, one of over two 
hundred, the other almost three hundred pages, and 
he was one of the most prominent and influential 
officers in the publication department of the tract 
society, and never endangered the sale of his works 
by printing tracts or protests against his favorite in- 
stitution. The declared object of the tract society is, 
in part : "To diffuse the knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, as the redeemer of sinners, and to pro- 
mote the interests of vital godliness and sound 
morality." 

And it was no violation of "sound morality" to 
establish, support and sanctify, generation after gen- 
eration, a slave system, that converted every slave 
cabin into a brothel of 'prostitution, or a hovel or sty 
of beasts, where marriage and parentage were un- 
known, not one marriage of all the millions of slaves 
ever sanctioned by law, not one mother ever made 
legally secure for one hour in the possession of her 
babe ; no, not one ! Not one slave girl, no matter how 
beautiful, had the slightest protection for her virtue, 
though dearer to her, as was thousands of times 
proved, than life ; no, not one ! The whole slave 
code was declared in one terse utterance : 

" If any slave shall presume to strike any white 
person, such slave may be lawfully killed." Killed, 
of course, on the spot ! 



462 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

In all this, there was no outrage on " sound moral- 
ity," nor "vital godliness," in tract society estimation ; 
in one society, more or less, than in the other. " We 
are not an anti-slavery society." No, truly not. You 
need not have said it. 

Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians and 
Cyprians had a law or custom, compelling every 
woman, once in her life, to visit the temple of Venus, 
and prostitute herself to the honor of that unclean 
divinity. But Babylonians and Cyprians were not 
christians. They were not even Jews. They were 
pagans. And then, their women need go there but 
once. The slave girl or woman never went anywhere 
else. "Vital godliness," and "sound morality," in 
Bible and tract society sense, sent her there, kept her 
there all her life, and the people, excepting a few abo- 
litionists, said amen and amen. The great ecclesias- 
tical organizations wielded a power in shaping and 
controlling their character and destiny, second only to 
omnipotence. The commission of the faithful, un- 
compromising abolitionists, was unmistakable: "Go 
and speak my words unto them, whether they will hear 
or whether they will forbear. * * And they, 
whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, 
(for they are a rebellious house), yet shall they know 
that there hath been a prophet among them." And 
the faithful among them spoke that divinely inspired 
word, crying aloud and sparing not, showing the 
southern slave-holder his transgressions, and his 
northern abettor and apologist his sins, till the dying 
agonies of Bull Run and over a thousand other bat- 
tles and bloody encounters, answered for them, mag- 
nified and made honorable their ministrations, and 
showed to the whole world that there was yet a God 
in Israel ! 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 463 

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

Iii the early part of this work allusions were made 
to that "bill of abomination," known as the fugitive 
slave law of 1850. That law was often executed, and 
sometimes in Boston, with peculiar atrocities and ag- 
gravations, the navy yard near by, furnishing ample 
facilities for the necessary.military force. Once, how- 
ever, troops were ordered from the interior of Massa- 
chusetts, and quartered in Faneuil hall, till the poor 
victim was sent back to his whipping post and brand- 
ing-iron. Honest men and women were beggared by 
imprisonments and heavy fines, for harboring and 
concealing, or refusing to aid in the blood-hound 
work of pursuing and capturing fugitive slave men 
and women in their nightly flight to Canada. Massa- 
chusetts pulpits, even Andover theological seminary, 
ably defended the diabolical business. On the 7th 
of March, 1850, Daniel Webster nearly stunned, not 
only his constituency, but the whole north, by his 
speech in the United States senate, in advocacy of 
that direful enactment. The old federal and whig 
party succession of Massachusetts, had bowed low 
and long to the despotic, slave power before. All the 
compromises in the constitution had been exacted and 
enforced, unrighteous and unjust as all of them were, 
from the first. Then, even against constitutional re- 
striction, Florida and Louisiana had been purchased 
for slave states. The Seminole and Mexican wars 
ensued, as a first consequence, continuing on through 
a dozen years and more, all " red with uncommon 
wrath," in many of the atrocities perpetrated on the 
poor Indians ; but now new vials of slave-holding in- 
dignation, as well as power, were to be uncorked upon 
the north. The people of the northern states had 
long violated the solemn command to " remember 



464 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

them that were in bonds as bound with them," and 
now a stern decree came up from the slave power, to 
go and be bound with them in chains more ignoble than 
the shackles of the slaves themselves ! Robert 
Toombs, of Georgia, had prophesied that he would yet 
"call the roll of his slaves on Bunker hill." And now 
he did so, and in Faneuil hall as well ! Slaves armed 
to protect the lordly slave-holder in recapturing, in 
Boston streets, their fellow slaves, who had been at 
least brave enough to attempt escape to Canada, land 
of kings and queens, where they could be free ! 

So was it when Professor Stuart sat down in the 
sacred shades of Andover, and wrote a work all ablaze 
with blasphemy against liberty, entitled, " Conscience 
and the Constitution, with remarks on the recent 
speech of Daniel Webster, in the senate of the United 
States, on the subject of slavery ; " a work in large oc- 
tavo, of about a hundred and twenty pages. It was 
not the first time the venerable professor had drawn 
his pen in defense of his friend, Mr. Webster, in some 
of his official acts, as the history of the Tyler admin- 
istration revealed. 

From Professor Stuart's hundred and eighteen 
pages, less than one will here be given, the first part 
bearing directly on the return of fugitive slaves. On 
page sixty, he asks : 

What, now, have we here ? Paul sending back a 
christian servant, who had run away from his christian 
master. * * * He enjoins it upon Onesimus 
to return to his master forever. This last phrase has 
respect to the fact that Paul supposed that the sense 
of christian obligation which was now entertained by 
Onesimus, would prevent him from ever repeating the 
offense. And all this, too, when Philemon, being an 
active and zealous christian, would in a moment have 
submitted to any command of Paul, respecting Ones- 
imus. Why, then, did Paul send him back ? There 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 465 

!s only one answer to be given, viz., that Paul's chris- 
tian conscience would not permit him to injure the 
vested rights of Philemon. * * * Paul's con- 
science sent back the fugitive slave ; Paul's conscience, 
then, like his doctrines, was very different from that 
of the abolitionists. Theirs, encourages him to run- 
away, and then protects him in the misdeed. The 
conscience of Paul sends him back the fugitive with- 
out any obligation at all on the ground of compact ; 
theirs, encourages and protects his escape, in the face 
of the most solemn national compact. And all this 
for consciences sake. 

Some of the states, Massachusetts among them, had 
enacted state laws or measures, contravening in some 
respects, the demands of the slave law. On that sub- 
ject, Professor Stuart wrote: "To the position our 
honored legislature in their recent resolves, viz.: 
That the case of the fugitive shall' be tried 'by 
jury, in the state where the claim is made,' / am un- 
able, highly as I respect their motives, to yield my as- 
sent." 

And, in summing up, the professor says, and this 
closes the citations from him : 

I have done with this subject. The brief result, as 
it strikes my mind, is, that the Constitution in respect 
to fugitives held to service or labor, must be obeyed. It 
is useless to talk about conscience as setting it aside. It 
is an imputation on the men who formed our govern- 
ment. It is holding them up to the world as having 
neither justice nor humanity. 

In these extracts the italicizing and capitalizing are 
the professor's own. Let them speak for themselves. 
I will only say, they are but samples of his whole 
work. 

President, Nathan Lord, D. D., of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, soon after the appearance of " Conscience and the 
Constitution" wrote to the author, Professor Stuart, a 
reply in a pamphlet letter of two and forty pages 



466 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

octavo, correcting, not the doctrine, or morality of his 
work, but some statements of fact relating to Puritan 
history and slavery. Professor Stuart wrote on page 
109 : " In looking back on the history of slavery in 
our country, whence do we find it to have originated ! 
From Great Britain, and from her alone ; all the colo- 
nies fought pitched battles against it ; but the king 
and parliament defeated them. North and south were 
united on this question — united before the Declaration 
of Independence, and united for a long time after it." 

These statements of the learned Professor, the 
more learned President Lord refutes in masterly man- 
ner ; he shows that slavery existed in all the British 
colonies with exception of Georgia for a short time 
and with a power of erudition and argument proves it, 
and apparently, approves it too. He even implicates 
the Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
Quakers with the rest. The President says : 

A foggy sort of notion is beginning to prevail, that 
from their origin, at any rate from their settlement in 
this country under William Penn, the Quakers as a 
denomination, have been opposed to slavery. This 
position if true, would only prove that among many 
wild and visionary theories which distinguish them 
as a sect, they adopted that of abolition. But the 
notion is not true ; opposition to slavery sprang up 
among them at a comparatively recent date. William 
Penn lived and died a slave owner. There is a letter 
on record from T. Matlack, an aged Friend, to William 
Findlay, which gives account of the rise and progress 
of this idea among them. The letter says : 

The practice of slave-keeping in New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania, commenced with the first settlement of 
the province, and certainly was countenanced by 
William Penn. * * * Penn left a family 
of slaves behind him. * * * Slave-keeping 
of course, became general among Friends. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERV APOSTLES. 467 

President Lord says Penn attempted to legislate, 
not for the abolition of slavery, but for the sanctity of 
marriage among slaves, and for their personal safety ; 
but he also declares, "there is no more reason to sup- 
pose George Fox was an abolitionist, than that 
Governor Winthrop was an abolitionist. And by 
Rees's Cyclopedia, by Sir Edward Coke, Sir William 
Temple and Lord Campbell, he establishes the fact of 
practical slave-holding and slave-trading, and shows 
that slaves could neither acquire nor hold any property 
in land nor goods, and children always followed the 
condition of the parents ; and further, that the 
renowned Sir John Hawkins first opened and estab- 
lished the African slave trade with Queen Elizabeth, a 
ready accomplice. So President Lord argues that it 
was natural and reasonable that Puritans in the colon- 
ies should hold and trade in slaves as they did, even 
" branding them on the shoulder" and exporting cargoes 
of their Indian prisoners to the West Indies. At the 
close of King Philip's war, he says, " a great many of 
the chiefs were executed in Boston and Plymouth, and 
most of the rest of the prisoners were shipped for 
slaves to the Bermudas and other parts." This, 
he says, and truly, '' was an affair of state." Ami 
then whole pages more, which must not only have 
enlightened the mind of Professor Stuart, but greatly 
gladdened his heart ; as showing that even the Puri- 
tans, always regarded as only very little, if any, lower 
than the angels, were not only slave-breeders, and 
traders, but exalted the red hot branding-iron as part 
of the paraphernalia of the diabolical business. 

President Lord's own estimate of slavery is directly 
given in two other pamphlets, now on my table, beside 
the long letter to Professor Stuart. In one, entitled 
"A True Picture of Abolition," he says (page 8, 9) : 



468 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

The south is slave-holding. It is so constitutionally 
and legally. Slavery enters into the structure of its 
society, not a thing of accident, possibly not every- 
where of preference, but an inheritance according to 
the common law of earth ; a providential order, with- 
out which, in view of necessarily, that is naturally and 
statedly existing diversities of race, culture and con- 
dition, the social state could not have been constitu- 
ted at all, and " life, liberty and happiness " would 
have been insecure to a christian people, who had 
just bought them at so great a price. Slavery was not, 
indeed, the cornerstone, but the practical condition of 
the Union, the constitution and the laws. * * 
It had existed in the usages of nations. It was 
common law ; it was incorporated into the civil insti- 
tutions of Moses ; it was recognized accordingly by 
Christ and His apostles. They regulated it by the 
just and benevolent principles of the New Testament. 
They condemned all intermeddlers with it. * 

Wherever it was subsequently abolished its want of 
physical adaptation and consequent inconveniences, 
not its essential wrongfulness, were mainly the reasons 
for its abolition. 

On page ten the president continues : 

So it stood till a generation arose that comprehended 
none of these living realities ; that honored not God 
and the Father, and for His everlasting word of 
natural and revealed religion, substituted a higher law. 
Among them were born the abolitionists, who are now, 
officially, supreme over the land. They were at first 
a small class of speculative enthusiasts, intoxicated by 
the airy pantheism of France and Germany, which 
had covertly breathed its spirit into the " glittering 
generalities" of the Declaratien of Independence, and 
by that instrument insensibly affected the public mind. 
They were men of no mark nor figure ; inflated vis- 
ionaries, mistaking their own fancies for another gos- 
pel, which is not another. 

With almost two pages octavo of similar if not 
even worse. 



ATI'S OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 469 

Of the doings in congress he wrote : " Calhoun and 
Webster at the head, or such men as Brooks (Bully 
Brooks) and Sumner at the tail, could never have ion- 
tended greatly to the public detriment, till congress 
let in subjects of discussion which concerned more 
immediately the government of gods. That was our 
original mistake. * * Common mistake of all coun- 
tries, as virtue declines. * * * Till we made that 
blunder the country was united, prosperous and happy. 
There had been no such instance in the history of the 
world." 

One quotation more. Would that space and patience 
of readers, would permit insertion of the whole pam- 
phlet. On pages twelve and onward the president 
proceeds : 

Abolitionism became an institution, organic and 
vital, body and soul ; a working power. It was en- 
vious at God's appointed orders. It labelled'the con- 
stitution, " A covenant with death, an agreement with 
hell.'" * * Gaining confidence as it acquired 
ascendency over the simple, the curious, the fearful, 
the imaginative, the undisciplined, the dispassionate, 
it aspired to popular control and revolutionary 
distinction. But to that end it must become re- 
ligious. It was ready for the occasion. 
It appealed to scripture, now twisted by improved ver- 
sions, arbitrary criticisms and fantastic commentaries 
from its literal, direct and scientific meanings, till it 
was made as subservient and as obscure as a Delphic 
oracle. * * To the same end it must also 
be political. It affected the well-being of the state. 
It studied intrigue and finesse. It became an expert. 
It disciplined its ranks. It found the balance of party 
power and then sold itself to the progressive party. 
The price was the government of the country. The 
object was the dissolution of the Union, and then the 
introduction of the New Jerusalem. * Such 

is the moral record of abolitionism, brought down to 
the date of presidential proclamations. 



47° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

So we speak, for so we make good our cause. Aboli- 
. tionism is at fault. It is false and wrong. It destroys 
the ancient landmarks. It obliterates the old paths. 
It puts its heel on constitutional relations. It sunders 
what God has united, and unites what God had sun- 
dered. 

So much, and surely very much, for Nathan Lord> 
D. D., president of Dartmouth college. Readers may 
remember, about the college mob we had there twenty 
years before this pamphlet was written. For this did 
not appear till 1863. This was penned amid the bat- 
tle thunders and dying shrieks and groans of the war 
of the rebellion — over the graves of thousands and 
hundreds of thousands already dead ! With such 
presidents of colleges as Dr. Lord, and such theolog- 
ical professors as Moses Stuart, what wonder that we 
had our pro-slavery riot and tumult at Dartmouth ! 
What wonder that we had such general assemblies of 
the Presbyterian church ! And such missionary, Bible 
and tract societies ! And what wonder that slavery, 
with its inevitable attendant horrors, so supported, so 
sanctified, continued so long ! 

But to return to the fugitive slave law and its eccle- 
siastical sanctification. The two volumes of Dr. 
Adams, of Essex-street church, Boston, published in 
1854, and 186 1, are before me. The whole soul and 
spirit of them both is summed up in these few words, 
in the volume of 1851, and with these few, readers 
will be glad to have done with them : 

'' Unless we choose to live in a perpetual state of 
war, we must prevent and punish all attempts to de- 
coy slaves from their masters. Whatever our repug- 
nance to slavery may be, there is a law of the land, 
a constitution to which we must submit, or employ 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 47 1 

suitable means to change it. While it re mains, all our 

appeals to a higher law are fanaticism" 
< 

And Dr. Adams was, for many years, a prominent 

member of the publication committee of the American 
tract society. 

The last fugitive slave bill was signed by acting 
President Millard Fillmore, and became a law, Sep- 
tember 1 8th, 1850. Its execution soon began, but, 
everywhere, was attended with difficulties ; was some- 
times resisted even unto blood. The pulpit soon 
came to the rescue ; Boston sure to be in the van. 

On the first Thanksgiving day, Dr. Sharp, of the 
Baptist church, and Rev. Mr. Rogers, of the Congre- 
gational, gave each a sermon, which was subsequently 
printed, from which a few extracts will now be given. 
Of the Essex-street pastor, Dr. Adams, nothing need 
be adduced after the passage from his South-side view 
of Slavery," just presented. 

Dr. Sharp said : 

It is our duty to submit to the government extend- 
ing over the region in which we dwell, and to obey 
the magistrates under whose jurisdiction we are. The 
condition of our obedience is, that they who claim to 
govern us, have legal authority for doing do. With 
these facts well established, our obedience is not to be 
measured and graduated by our estimation of the 
wisdom or folly of the laws under which we live ; 
their partiality or impartiality, their justice or injus- 
tice. With one exception, while any given law exists, 
although it may operate upon our interests unjustly 
and oppressively, we must, nevertheless, submit 
to it. * * * 

* * * To bring this subject nearer 

home, let us consider the duty of subjection to 
the powers that be, as applicable to the fugitive slave 
law. And in what I would say, I would have it un- 
derstood that I discriminate between slavery and mul- 
titudes of excellent persons who hold slaves. Before 



472 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

the colonies became independent, or the union of the 
states was formed, slavery, that system of injustice, 
oppression and wrong (as it appears to me), was so 
interwoven with all the habits, interests and worldly 
hopes of the people at the south, that they had not 
the courage, the faith, the disinterestedness, to set the 
slaves free. And yet they feared that their slaves, 
hearing of the freedom of their own race in other 
states, would attempt to escape. The southern mem- 
bers, therefore, of the convention that framed the na- 
tional compact called the constitution of the United 
States, insisted on a clause securing the return of 
fugitives from labor, on legal evidence of the fact 
being presented. • This engagement became part of 
the constitution. I regret its existence, but there it 
is. * * * 

* * * The question then arises, are 
you willing to enjoy the benefits of the great national 
compact, but to violate its conditions ? How much 
there would be of high-mindedness in such a course, 
I leave it to you to determine. * * * 

* * * Much less can the free citizens 
of the United States, living under the protection, and 
enjoying the benefits of our blessed laws, with all the 
advantages of the national compact, be justified in 
encouraging poor fugitive slaves to acts of resistance, 
in putting forth the fist, or unsheathing the sword of 
rebellion. In this state, world-wide renowned for its 
steady habits, no one should allow himself to have the 
hardihood and unseemliness to say that a law of con- 
gress cannot be here enforced. 

* * * Our country, extending from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, having a coast and an interior 
unparalleled in the world's history, is the new Canaan, 
the land of promise, to which the poor and the tax- 
ridden, and they who have yet something left, are 
coming from the decaying institutions and over-stocked 
millions of older lands. But it will be a Canaan no 
longer than we prize the union, revere the constitu- 
tion, and obey the laws, wise or unwise, right or wrong, 
until we can modify or change them from unwisdom 
to wisdom, from wrong to right, by the only process 
that is justifiable, the process of legislation. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 473 

So held and taught Dr. Sharp. It is easy to re- 
member, if hard to accept the words of those brave 
men, who, eighteen hundred years before, had said : 
"Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken 
unto you more than unto God, judge ye ? " 

But Dr. Sharp held with Dr. Adams, that "appeal 
to any higher law than the constitution, while that was 
in force, was fanaticism j '" 

But we must hasten to Mr. Rogers, of the Winter- 
street Congregational church : 

Within the limits of this broad land, the citizen of 
the United States is everywhere at home ; the soil of 
his country beneath his feet, the flag of his country 
above him, and the protection of its laws around him, 
he is nowhere an alien and a stranger in this common- 
wealth of our Israel. * And yet 
with peace in our borders, with plenty in our store, 
with every privilege and opportunity open to all men 
for development of mind, for appreciation of all the 
benefits pertaining to air, to earth, to sea ; and yet 
with all of good we have, and can have, there are dif- 
ferences among us : there are dissensions ; and bitter 
words are uttered, and bitter words are retorted, and 
men speak of resistance to law ; some men speak of 
the nullification of the constitution. Men speak of 
disunion, horrible as it is, and it has thrilled every 
nerve in my soul ! Horrible as it is, these words 
have become as familiar as household words. It has 
been proclaimed : " Law or no law, constitution or no 
constitution, the hands of the law and of the people 
should not execute the behests of the court, within 
the precincts of this commonwealth. 

It is one of the articles of the constitution, that a 
person held to service or labor in one state under the 
laws thereof, shall be delivered up on the claim of the 
party to whom such labor is due ; I say that it is one 
of the articles of the constitution ; for you might 
readily gather from the popular cry, and from the 
tendency of the popular feeling, that the whole of the 
constitution of the United States was nothing but an 



474 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

instrument for the oppression of the slave, in utter 
forgetfulness of every other right and every other duty. 
It is one of the articles of that constitution ; being one 
of the articles of that constitution, then I gather that 
whatsoever party is in power, it makes no difference 
what the name, what the principles they affirm before 
or after election, whatever party is in power, in their 
place in congress, if there were no law already made, 
pursuant to this article of the constitution, they would 
be bound to make a law, and a law which should carry 
out this provision and restore the fugitive to the claim- 
ant upon due proof of that claim and that service to 
be rendered in another state. 

Do you say, no ? do you say that it would be wrong ? 
that it is sinful, thus to do ? but I ask you to consider 
as an honest man, with a consciousness that your rep- 
resentative had called the God of heaven to witness 
that he will maintain the constitution of these United 
States, would you have him perjure himself and refuse 
to carry out the constitution ? Leave it to an infidel 
Christianity to teach such morals, but when you ask 
counsel of God, expect no such answer. * 

* * The fugitive asks us to interpose ; when he 
does so he asks us to do what the people of the 
United States, or a majority of them, have said we 
shall not do ; he asks us to do precisely what we have 
agreed not to do. We are under bonds to the millions 
of this country to keep the peace, and to make this a 
government of law, and not a government of force. 
Oh, it is a miserable alternative in which we are placed 
by the mistakes, by the guilt of our fathers beyond the 
waters, in bringing this curse upon us, and leaving us 
to decide between what seems the voice of charitv and 
mercy, and a law vigorously severe, to which neverthe- 
less we must bow. If the slave ask us to stand 
between him and the marshal armed with the power 
of the people, for his arrest, what can we say to him, 
but make the miserable confession that we have dis- 
possessed ourselves of the power to stand between 
the oppressor and the oppressed ? 

Then it follows, and should be distinctly understood, 
that if a fugitive from bondage come to our common- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 475 

wealth, and abideth here, he docs it on his own respon- 
sibility, and does it with a knowledge that those among 
whom he lives, have dispossessed themselves of all 
power under the constitution and the law to stand 
between him and his master. This we can do for him, 
but, when the question is presented to us, shall we 
obey the law ? and the answer is, nay, but resist it ; 
what do we, but nullify the constitution of which the 
law is but the practical working? What do we hut 
make void the organic law of the country? What do 
we but that which South Carolina has attempted in 
the days of her nullification, and seems likely to repeat 
in this second case of her madness ? Ah ! we said bit- 
ter things against South Carolina in those days. We 
told her there were bayonets enough and men enough 
in the old Bay state to put her in her place and keep 
her there. *If we were right then, we are 
wrong now, But it is said we are wiser now 
and we may have been right. Then the law is a sin 
against Cod, and the constitution a law organic in the 
life of the nation. Well if it be so, then it seems to 
me the inference is very plain. This confederacy 
ought not to exist an hour ; if it be so, then those men 
who voted for the admission of California as a free 
state into this confederacy, were very wicked men. It 
was voting the admission of that commonwealth 
into a confederacy against the God of heaven. 

But when the slave asks me to stand between him 
and his master, he asks me to do something more than 
free him ; and here is the difficulty. Could you sep- 
arate the question of the slave's freedom or bondage, 
from those difficulties with which, under the law, it is 
involved ; would you make it a clear question here 
upon this soil, whether he should be a free man or a 
slave, there is not a hand or heart within the limits of 
the commonwealth, but would go at once for freedom. 
W T e must be false to our fathers, false to ourselves and 
to the spirit breathed into the soul of the word of 
Cod, if we could even have any other sympathy than 
sympathy with the oppressed,, against the oppressor, 
the bondman rather than the bond master. But when 
the slave asks me to stand between the marshal and 

3° 



476 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

himself, what does he ask me to do ? simply to free 
him ? no, that is not all ; he asks me to substitute 
force for law ; anarchy for government. He asks me 
to overturn the tribunals of justice, to break into frag- 
ments the power of a nation overshadowing all, and 
protecting all. He asks me to do him right by wrong- 
ing twenty millions of men ! The question comes 
home to my soul ; I am not at once ready to answer ; 
I pause ; I reflect ; I meditate ; if I resist that law, I 
nullify the constitution ; in doing it, I am righteously 
held to answer for all the natural and proper conse- 
quences of my conduct. When the slave asks me to 
stand between him and his master, what does he ask? 
He asks me to murder a nation's life ; and I will not 
do it, because I have a conscience, and because there 
is a God. 

Then I say unto you, as a minister of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the conviction of my conscience is that 
upon the ground of reason, there is no safety for us, 
no better hope for the slave, than for the time, the 
carrying out of the constitution and laws of the coun- 
try ; and that as a question of conscience, God 
requires this at our hand. 

But if the spirit of sedition and rebellion become 
rampant in the land ; if the ordinary strength of the 
magistracy cannot countervail it, if there be trea- 
son, if there be rebellion ; if needful, to defend the 
constitution of the fathers, the magistracy call you 
to arms, arm ! If they call you to the field of battle, 
stand in your ranks as your fathers stood, shoulder to 
shoulder ; if to take human life, take it ; and if you fall, 
your memory shall be hallowed with those -xdiose bones 
mo ul dei- 011 the slopes of Bunker Hill ! 

Verily, verily ! Had Mr. Rogers lived in Babylon, 
or Cyprus, with what alacrity would he have despatched 
his daughters in all their maiden modesty, and virgin 
purity, to the foul embraces of Mylitta's horrible rites ! 
"As a minister of the gospel" he demanded "obeying 
the constitution and the laws." 

This is what he says. " When my daughter asks 
me to save her from such foul pollution, what does 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 477 

she ask ? simply that I save her? no, that is not all ; 
she asks me to substitute force for law ; anarchy for 
government. I pause; I reflect; I meditate. If I 
resist the law, I nullify the constitution ! * * 

* When my daughter asks me to stand between 

her and the law, what does she ask ? she asks me to 
murder a nation's life ; and I will not do it, because 
I have a conscience, and because I believe there is a 
God ! " 

And that was Rev. William Rogers, of Winter street 
Congregational church in Boston, in the one thousand 
eight hundred and fiftieth year of christian grace ! 
And of the Independence of the United States, the 
seventy-fourth ! Change only the civil fugitive slave 
law for the sacred prostitution act of Babylon and 
Cyprus, and the parallel is complete ; is perfect. 
With only this tremendous difference in favor of 
Babylon and Cyprus ; that there, one visit to the teni' 
pie sufficed forever. But return to American slavery, 
under its fugitive law was crossing that awful "bridge 
of sighs," over which was inscribed, 

"All hope abandon ye who enter here !" 

And now this protracted argument is done ; not for 
lack of material, but only out of respect to space and 
time. For be it ever remembered, all that has been 
adduced, and surely it is much, is but specimen of 
whole volumes which yet remain. .For instance, the 
masterly argument of Mr. Whipple, on the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, is a 
book of nearly two hundred and fifty pages, closely 
printed in fine type, and made up entirely from the 
annual reports and other official literature of the board 
itself. And his work might have been extended to 
two or three times its present size ; and the same sub- 
stantiallv, could be said of the sources from which the 



478 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

information and evidence have been derived on the 
American Bible and Tract societies, and on the great 
leading, controlling, religious sects and organizations 
that represented the religious sentiment of the country 
at the beginning, and in the progress of the great 
anti-slavery conflict. And what must be the conclu- 
sion from it all ? Judge Birney answered early : "The 
American churches the bulwarks of American slav- 
ery." Stephen S. Foster replied later, in tones of 
thunder, " The Brotherhood of thieves ; or a true pict- 
ure of the American church and clergy." Then came a 
ringing voice from the west : " Slavery, and the slave- 
holder's Religion ; " by Samuel Brooke, of Ohio, and 
still later : "The Church as it is : the Forlorn Hope of 
slavery," a larger pamphlet than the others. Nor were 
these all. And all pursuing the same course, which 
was to permit the accused to furnish all the testimony; 
not half, nor a part, but the whole. Nor was there 
any cross questioning, nor inferential evidence, from 
beginning to end. 

What more could church or clergy have asked, 
unless in the language and spirit of those who 
demanded of the great teacher of Nazareth : " What 
have we to Jo with thee? let i/s alone!" Or what can 
this generation ask of us to-day ? the very few of us 
who yet remain on earth ? and in justice to ourselves 
and our cause, what less, or otherwise, could, or 
should we abolitionists, have done ? 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SOME PERSONAL SKETCHES AND REMINISCENCES-^ 
LAST SPEECH IN AN ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY 
GATHERING. 

Returning now to the acts of the anti-slavery 
apostles, it should be explained that this lung digres- 
sion to the acts of another order of apostles became 
necessary after the work was begun, and extends it, 
too, beyond my original design. Within the past 
year, the enemies of the anti-slavery enterprise, or 
their children, have not only renewed their old calum- 
nies against the faithful and uncompromising friends 
and advocates of that enterprise, but they have urged 
them with augmented aggravations. Their language 
need not be here reproduced. They themselves have 
given it to history and to posterity, and they and the 
sure years, will render a true and just verdict. 

But though the book has grown already beyond my 
purpose at the outset, it shall not close without at 
least some fraternal and friendly allusions to a few 
faithful men and noble women with whom I became 
acquainted in the lecturing field, each single one of 
whom deserves a volume of finer strains than mine. 

The Burleigh brothers, Charles C, and Cyrus M., 
came to the field almost in their boyhood, but valiant, 
vigorous as the young knights of chivalry, equal al- 
ways to any encounter. Had Charles C. Burleigh 
pursued the profession of the law, as was his inten- 
tion, there was no eminence he could not easily have 
reached. On the platform, in argument, he had no 



480 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES 

superior and few equals. We always felt safe when 
Burleigh came to the stand. He never rose but when 
he had something to say. And, generally, when he 
had spoken, not much more was needed on the ques- 
tion in hand. With his pen, when he did write, he 
was not less mighty, as his " Thoughts on the Death 
Penalty," away back in 1845, proved. N. P. Rogers 
wrote of it in the Herald of Freedom : " I have gone* 
over the 'Thoughts' as particularly as I am able to a 
book, and can witness to its being all that the reader 
has right to expect from the power of the writer. It 
is arranged with great judgment and order, and winds 
about the poor old gallows tree an uninterupted 
chain for its destruction. Chain lightning, I wish it 
might prove, to strike and splinter it to its very roots, 
as I have seen a white pine, that had been just visited 
by one of these touches from the clouds. * * A 
trimmer, abler, more masterly argument, has not been 
put together in words. Burleigh's antagonist is Dr. 
George B. Cheever. Burleigh doesn't leave a rag of 
his parson's gown on his back. Nobody makes an ar- 
gument perfect and unanswerable but Charles Bur- 
leigh. Give him a good cause at the bar, as good as 
he has here, and let him speak first, and the adversary 
council would never reply. The court wouldn't let 
him. His client wouldn't let him, not if he had com- 
mon sense. The counsel wouldn't himself, for he 
wouldn't find an inch of ground left to start on. I 
never knew so absolute an arguer as Burleigh. And 
he has displayed himself completely in this work." 

A younger brother, Cyrus M. Burleigh, was an 
earnest, faithful worker in the lecture field, but fell an 
early victim to consumption. Amiable, gentle, com- 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 48] 

panionable, simple and sincere, he was ever well re- 
ceived, and most beloved and respected, where best 
known. 

Abby tLelley Foster and Lucy Stone both achieved 
enviable success in their anti-slavery work, not to 
speak of their ever abounding labors since in the 
cause of woman suffrage, to well fill a volume. And 
each has a brilliant and cultivated daught< r, too, 
every way equal to its production. Mrs. Foster was 
in the lecturing field when I entered it, in 1840, and 
had been for a number of years. And she is the last 
survivor of those I found there who continued con- 
stantly in the conflict till the battle was won. She 
early entered to conquer or die, and nobly and bravely 
she kept her vow. Lucy Stone came later, but came 
not less with the spirit of hero and martyr, and came 
long before the period of peril, as well as of sacrifice 
and severe suffering was passed. I have seen her in 
truly ferocious mobs, that knew no distinction of sex 
nor color, race nor religion. I once saw her hit on the 
head with a large Swedenborgian prayer-book, hurled 
across the hall with a velocity and force worthy other 
cannons than the "sacred canons" of "holy church." 
A less severe blow, on a vital spot, has taken life. The 
mob was in a hall, used on Sundays for Swedenborgian 
worship ; and in a town famous in that (.lay for the 
manufacture of cotton gins, for southern trade, and 
so was an offering to slave-holding customers, as well 
as a tribute to religion and worship. 

Charles Lenox Remond earned a place in anti-sla- 
very history worthy a monument, as well as extended 
biography. Salem, the place of his birth and resi- 
dence during most of his life, never knew him, never 
will, to do any justice to his memory and worth. But 
he achieved a reputation, both in his own country and 



4§2 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Great Britain, that might well be coveted, and doubt- 
less was, by thousands who knew him in Salem, 
and all over Massachusetts and New England ; but 
who scorned him and his race, not more for their 
color than condition in slavery, down to which so 
many millions of them were consigned by the republi- 
canism, the religion and the unhallowed prejudice and 
hatred of the nation. Many times I have myself gazed 
on him with admiration, when before the best Boston 
audiences, he acquitted himself with a power of 
speech, argument and eloquence, which rarely, if 
ever, thrilled a house of congress or legislative hall. 
And I would often wonder how many young men of 
Salem, how many in Massachusetts, who had enjoyed all 
the advantages of grammar school, high school or acad- 
emy, from which his color drove him away, could come 
there and occupy and fill his place — not occupy, merely, 
but fill his place ! How many ! Alas ! how few, how 
very few, could do it ! We hear much, talk much of 
"self-made men." But who ever thinks of how scant 
material our codes, customs, constitutions, schools and 
churches permitted the colored people, a half-century 
ago, to set up the business of "self-made men" 
making ! 

And then I had not been long in the lecturing field 
before fugitive slaves began to appear on our plat- 
form. Among the earliest, as well as most eminent 
were Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown. 
And what had they out of which to create a "self- 
made " manhood, or any manhood ? I was to-day 
reading two advertisements, and feel inclined to copy 
them to answer that question. The first was from the 
Charleston, S. C, Courier, of February 12th, 1835, an( ^ 
was headed : 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 483 

" Field negroes — by Thomas Gadsden. On Tues- 
day, the 17th instant, will be sold at the north of tin- 
Exchange, at ten o'ciock, a. m., a prime gang of ten 
negroes, accustomed to the culture of cotton and pro- 
visions — belonging to the Independent church, in L'iuist 
church parish." 

The other was this, taken from the Savannah, Ga., 
Republican, one item only given here, as below : 

Also, at the same time and place, the following ne- 
gro slaves, to wit : Charles, Peggy, Antoinnett, Davy, 
September, Maria, Jenny, and Isaac — levied on as the 
property of Henry T. Hall, to satisfy a mortgage fi. 
fia. issued out of Mcintosh superior court, in favor of 
the board of directors of the theological seminary of 
the synod of South Carolina and Georgia, vs. said 
Henry T. Hall. Conditions, cash. C. O'Neal, 

Deputy -shei-iff, m. c. 

And right at hand was another, which has just 
fallen under my eye, and will help to answer this 
question about self-made manhood : 

On the first Monday of February next, will be put 
up at public auction, before the court house, the fol- 
lowing property, belonging to the estate of the late 
Rev. Dr. Furman, viz : A plantation or tract of land, 
on and in the Wateree swamp. A tract of the first 
quality of fine land, on the waters of Black river. A 
lot of land in the town of Camden. A library of a 
miscellaneous character, chiefly theological. Twenty- 
seven negroes, some of them very prime. Two mules, 
one horse, and an old wagon. 

The Declaration of Independence reads : "All men 
are created equal." So all men, at creation, have equal 
elements to make up into manhood. But Rev. Dr. 
Furman had another breed of men, seven and twenty 
of them, and two mules and one horse ; or twenty-nine 
in all, and all " created equal." And " one old wagon," 
just as "equal " as the rest. And the Independent 
church in Christ's church parish, had ten more. And, 



484 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLKS. 

then, a "South Carolina theological seminary " had in 
litigation, eight. Now, it is not probable that Fred- 
erick Douglas was any one of these. But he, and 
every slave who makes himself a man, sets out from 
that dead level. Who ever thinks of it? "Two 
mules, a horse, and an old wagon, and twenty-seven 
negroes, some of them very prime." Nothing said of 
the mules, not a word of the horse. But the wagon 
is "old," and only part of the negroes are prime. 
Probably some of them may be older, more dilapi- 
dated than the wagon. Frederick Douglass began 
there, as an old wagon ; one of a gang of "twenty- 
seven negroes, two mules, a horse, and an old wagon." 
Some of the negroes not "very prime." Does any 
mortal man, or woman, comprehend all the tremen- 
dous meaning of these words? If there be, such 
must have read more and deeper than Rev. Dr. Furman's 
" library of miscellaneous character, chiefly theological" 
advertised with the rest of his property. Finally, if 
the average Salem, or Massachusetts boys, with all 
their advantages of school, below the university, can- 
not rival Charles Lenox Remond, who, though never 
a slave, nor son of slaves, yet had none of their ad- 
vantages in youth nor manhood, what will they say of 
Frederick Douglass, as he stands to-day, in the na- 
tional capital, spurning the lingering evolutionary 
processes of Darwin, and mounting, as in an instant, 
from the deep dead level of mules, horses and old 
wagons, to the very proudest manhood yet achieved 
in the nineteenth century ! When, or where in all the 
historic, or traditionary years of the past, shall the 
self-made man be found to measure with such a 
phenomenon as this ? 

And there were many others in the field, doing noble 
anti-slavery work, when I entered it, who were not 



ACTS OK ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 485 

agents of anti-slavery societies for any length of time, 
and perhaps never at all. Among these were Dr. 
Hudson, Henry C. Wright, Edwin Thompson and 
James N. Buffum. The last, Mr. Buffum, has been 
named before among these pages, and in a way greatly 
to his credit, and by one, too, who could appreciate 
genuine anti-slavery service, no matter by whom per- 
formed. And besides much good work well done, Mr. 
Buffum's house was for forty years, not only a safe and 
well-patronized depot of "the under-ground railway," 
but a hotel of unlimited, as well as elegant hospitality 
extended by himself and family with utmost cheerful- 
ness, not only to the anti-slavery apostles, but the 
faithful, earnest workers in every other department of 
real progress and reform. But beyond the good work 
done in his own country, Mr. Buffum also rendered val- 
uable service to the anti-slavery cause in Great Britain; 
particularly in Scotland, with the churches there- 
in 1845, it was found that the Free church had sent 
delegates to the United States, Dr. Candlish and Dr. 
Cunningham, to solicit money to aid their branch 
of the Scottish church. And by consorting with 
American churches, north and south, fellowshipping 
slave-holding ministers and others as christians, and 
by silence, or open avowal, approving of the slave 
system, with all its attendant horrors, they obtained 
and carried home three thousand pounds, or about 
fifteen thousand dollars. Some of it they acknowl- 
edged was even obtained from slaves. At that time, 
it so happened that Frederick Douglass and Henry 
C. Wright, as well as Mr. Buffum, were in Great Brit- 
ain ; and, joined by George Thompson, then in his 
full power and prime, they entered Scotland and com- 
menced a system of anti-slavery conventions and op- 
erations which soon set the country ablaze, as the 



486 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

journals expressed it, with excitement and agitation. 
The battle-cry was, " Send back that blood-stained 
money ! " 

And the slogan of William Wallace and his val- 
liant Scottish chiefs and knights, was not more terrible 
among the highlands, seven hundred years before, 
when southern hosts invaded them, than were the 
voices of Thompson and his three American friends, 
one then a young fugitive slave, (and a Douglass, too, 
worthy his namesake who followed Wallace), demand- 
ing, day and night, in city, town and country, of that 
heartless Free church and its unscrupulous priesthood, 
to return that blood-besmeared gold and come out 
from the fellowship and communion of a slave-breed- 
ing, slave-trading and slave-holding church, and its 
northern abettors in the United States of America, 
and thus rebuke, instead of partake in their cruelties 
and crimes. Before me are full reports of some of 
those meetings, and for earnestness, as well as argu- 
ment, eloquence, pathos, and intense responsive feeling 
in many crowded audiences, the cause might well 
have been proud' of them in either hemisphere. And 
from every account given, it is certain that Mr. 
Buffum acquitted himself nobly wherever he spoke or 
labored, during his year abroad. And when seven 
years afterward I visited Great Britain, no American 
was mentioned with more respect, or inquired about 
with more apparent interest, than James N. Buffum. 

In the New Testament "Acts of the Apostles,"' 
mention is made of " honorable women, not a few." 
These Acts could register great numbers of such, who 
went everywhere preaching the anti-slavery word. 
Sarah and Angelina Grimke emancipated their slaves 
in South Carolina, and in their youth abandoned afflu- 
ence and elegance at the south and came to the north 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 487 

and gave the remainder of their long lives to the 
cause of freedom and humanity. Later, came Sallie 
Holley, daughter of Hon. Myron Holley, of New York, 
graduate, with Lucy Stone, of Oberlin College, who 
seems like a true Sister of Mercy to have consecrated 
her whole life to the outcast Ethiopian. For so soon 
as slavery was abolished, she, with her invaluable and 
inseparable companion, Caroline Putnam, removed to 
Lottsburg, Virginia, and established themselves as 
teachers among the freed people, where they still con- 
tinue in their truly millennial work, making the wilder- 
ness to bud and blossom as the rose, and the old 
deserts of slavery to shout and sing for joy. Susan 
B. Anthony was early in the temperance and anti- 
slavery, as well as woman suffrage work. Jane Eliza- 
beth Jones and Josephine S. Griffing performed labor, 
made sacrifices, encountered sufferings at the west, 
not known, probably never will be known, to the 
world. Lucy N. Colman went from Massachusetts 
and for several seasons did excellent service and 
encountered the incidents sometimes not easy to face, 
of pioneer work. Sarah P. Remond, sister of Charles 
Lenox Remond, went to the west, and with her brother 
did service above all praise — removing prejudice 
against their complexion and winning fast friends 
wherever they came. Sarah subsequently went to 
England, studied medicine in London, went to Italy, 
married, and settled in large medical practice in 
Florence. But most wondrous of all was the Ethi- 
opian Sybil, Sojourner Truth, still living, a centenarian 
and more. These all it was my pleasure and privi- 
lege to meet as best of friends, as well as co-workers 
in that mighty moral and peaceful struggle for human- 
ity and liberty which made the middle of the nine- 
teenth century memorable amid the ages. 



4o8 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

It is impossible for me to do justice to the services 
of not a few others whom I met on the held of con- 
flict, should I even mention their names. Oliver 
Johnson was among the first to place his young Green 
Mountain manhood bravely by the side of Garrison. 
And his recently published work entitled " Garrison 
and His Times," has been of important use to me in 
the compilation of these chronicles. 

The faithful, most invaluable services of Samuel 
May as general agent of the Massachusetts Anti- 
Slavery Society for many years, and for a time, before 
and during the rebellion, of almost the whole Eastern 
States movement, would if truthfully written be nearly 
a history of the anti-slavery enterprise for its last 
quarter of a century. 

And Andrew T. Foss was another minister who 
abandonded his pulpit and profession, and for a dozen 
years was among the bravest and best of the Anti- 
Slavery apostles, never faltering till the last slave was 
free. 

George W. Putnam, poet as well as lecturer, accom- 
panied George Thompson in one of his brilliant lec- 
turing tours through the country. And the surpassing 
genius of the orator so inspired the poet and singer 
that his impromptu songs, given in connection with 
the lectures, added greatly to the interest, enthusiasm 
and success of the campaign. 

Captain Jonathan Walker, of the "Branded Hand," 
published a small volume of his sufferings and sacri- 
fices in a vain attempt to carry a cargo of escaping 
slaves across from Florida to the nearest British West 
India Islands. Narrowly escaping with his life, he 
returned to his home on Cape Cod, where, joined by 
Loring Moody, he entered the lecturing field. The 
account of his terrible sufferings in a Florida prison, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 489 

besides being branded on the palm of his right hand 
with a red hot iron, for the dreadful crime of doing 
as he would be done by, and "remembering them 
that were in bonds as bound with them," was heard 
with profound attention, interest and sympathy, by 
many large audiences all over New England. He 
subsequently removed to Michigan, where he died in 
1878, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. A 
handsome monument of Hallowed granite, costing 
about seven hundred dollars, and generously pre- 
sented by Rev. Photius Fisk, of Boston, marks the 
place of his burial. The city of Muskegon, near which 
he lived and died, honored itself by presenting and 
preparing a commodious lot in its principal cemetery, 
where his body lies entombed. And on the first of 
August, (a memorable day in British anti-slavery his- 
tory,) 1878, the monument was unveiled with appro- 
priate ceremonies, in the presence of the Mayor and 
city government, besides many state officials, and a 
concourse of fully ten thousand people. The pro- 
cession, with three bands of music, the marshals 
mounted, a part of them colored men, in special com- 
pliment to the deceased, extended nearly from the 
city hall to the monument. 

Mr. Moody continued in the anti-slavery service, 
was at one period general agent of the Massachusetts 
Society, till the opening of the war of the rebellion. 
He was afterwards secretary of the Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and still later of a 
similar association in behalf of poor children. His 
reports proved conclusively his earnestness and faith- 
fulness and consequent usefulness in his work. His 
last labor was doubtless most important of all in his 
life of nearly seventy years. He originated and organ- 
ized The Institute of Heredity, perhaps, viewed in all 



49° ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

its aspects and relations, the most important enter- 
prise to universal human well being of the nineteenth 
century. And while its secretary, treasurer, and 
almost sole working element, he faltered and finally 
died early in the year 1883. 

Among the later, younger comers into the anti- 
slavery vineyard were E. H. Heywood, graduate of 
Brown University, at one time general agent of the 
Massachusetts Society, Joseph A. Howland and Aaron 
M. Powell. But in the early Christian years, seventy 
apostles were at one time ordained and sent forth to 
do all the works and wonders of the very chiefest 
apostles, whose names were not even recorded, with or 
without divine inspiration. And yet they all returned 
and reported that even the very devils had been sub- 
ject to their command and control. So there were 
many unnamed and unknown to-day, who on the anti- 
slavery field of moral, even of mortal, combat, 
"wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, 
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of 
the sword, waxed valliant in the fight and turned to 
flight the armies of the aliens." 

ADMISSIONS AND CONFESSIONS. 

In concluding these acts and chronicles, two con- 
siderations present themselves : one as admission, the 
other confession. In the severe arraignment of the 
American church and ministry as the bulwark, and 
finally as the forlorn hope of slavery, it was not 
always easy, if indeed necessary, to make explicit 
exceptions. Though the sect known as come-outers, 
particularly in the second decade of the Garrisonian 
movement, was numerous, it was not true that all 
came out of the churches who deserved the good name 
of abolitionists ; many remained in the churches 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. p;i 

under the plea or pretense of reforming them ; they 
did so after the churches had been proved the accom- 
plices of actual and practical adulterers at the south ; 
and the churches at the south, worse than the houses 
of ill fame in New York ; worse than the temples of 
the obscene goddess, Mylitta, in Cyprus and Babylon. 
Worse in at least two particulars ; one visit to the 
abominable worship of Mylitta was all that the law 
required of women in a lifetime. But in the southern 
churches, marriage was utterly unknown among 
slaves in all their lifetime. Out of that dreadful con- 
dition there was no escape but into the cold embraces 
of death ; and. the victims were born into their con- 
dition ; thev did not enter it voluntarily, as do the 
wretched inmates, the dens of infamy in New York. 
They are not born into them ; no law, no custom, 
no religious observance forces them there ; they enter 
when they will ; they can leave when they choose. 
And more than that, there are many Magdalen 
associations and female moral reform societies whose 
special mission it is to tempt them from those dread 
abodes, by promise of every assistance to return to 
the paths of purity and virtue, with no penalty for the 
past, no rebuke, no reproach, only the gentle word of 
Him who said to one of the same unhappy class, "go, 
and sin no more." All this was urged on the con- 
sideration of church members who would not leave 
their adulterous slave-holding communion and fellow- 
ship, with this appeal ; could you recommend to the 
inmates of no worse place than the house of ill repute 
in New York, to remain in it to reform it? Could you, 
would you, though you believed such reformation 
possible ? 

And not unfrequently, such church abolitionists 
were zealous members of the so-named liberty, or 



49 2 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

free soil party, and had left the whig and democratic 
parties with stern self assumed integrity, and would 
not vote in them, nor for them, nor their candidates, 
for any office in the public gift. Thousands of times 
such have been seen on Sunday, at the sacramental 
supper, with the wickedest whigs and democrats who 
ever voted for slave-holders, or caught and returned 
fugitive slaves ; but on Monday, at the polls, they 
would spurn all such from their presence as unclean ; 
would no more vote for them, nor their candidates, 
than for the Prince of Darkness. Then, to which- 
ever of the three parties they belonged, they were 
members of a slave-holding union and government, 
and sworn by themselves or their elected officers, to 
support the constitution, which over and over again 
had been decided by the supreme court of the coun- 
try, to require the return of fugitive slaves, as well as 
to hold the slave claimant secure against any insur- 
rection among his slaves. Even Senator Sumner 
never forgot those obligations. In his letter accept- 
ing the office of senator of the United States, he 
wrote : " I accept, as the servant of the union ; bound 
to study with equal patriotic care the interests of all 
parts of the country ; and to oppose all sectionalism, 
whether it appear in unconstitutional efforts by the 
north to carry so great a boon as freedom into the 
slave states, or in unconstitutional efforts by the south, 
aided by northern allies, to carry the sectional evil 
into the free states." Such were the "solemn guar- 
anties" to the slave power as declared by John Quincy 
Adams, as accepted by Senator Sumner on his elec- 
tion to the United States senate, in 185 1. In 1861, 
ten years later, Mr. Lincoln came to the presidential 
chair. He began, not only where Mr. Adams left off, 
where Senator Sumner left off, but where the whole 



\> IS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOS1 I I S. 493 

democratic party left off; and in his very inaugural 
address said, in reference to those same "solemn 
guaranties" and their binding force ; " I understand a 

proposed amendment to the constitution has passed 
Congress to the effect that the Federal Govern 1 
Shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of 
the states, including that of persons held to service. 
To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I now 
depart from my purpose, not to speak of particular 
amendments, so far as to say, that holding such a 
provision to now be implied constitutional law, 1 have 
no objection to its being made express and irrevocable!" 

So much for President Lincoln. And only a little 
more than one month before he passed through Ohio 
on his way to Washington and his inauguration, a 
slave woman and her unborn babe were sent back 
from Cleveland to Virginia, under circumstances, 
recital of which in the city papers should have chilled 
all human blood. Referring to the sickening transac- 
tion, Mr. Garrison said: "Several columns of our 
paper are occupied with a heart-moving but most 
humiliating account of the legal rendition of a fugitive 
slave girl in Cleveland, and by republican hands, as a 
peace offering to the traitors and brigands of the 
south. Hear what Judge Spaulding, a high professing 
anti-slavery man of many years standing, said in his 
concluding speech at the trial : 

"While we do this in the City of Cleveland, and 
permit this poor piece of humanity to be taken 
peaceably through our streets and upon our railways 
back to the land of bondage will not the frantic south 
stay its parricidal hand ? Will not our compromising 
legislators cry, hold ! enough ? . . . We are this 
day offering to the majesty of constitutional law a 



494 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

homage that takes with it a virtual surrender of the 
finest feelings of our nature ; and is, I almost said, 
the contravention of a christian's duty to his God " 

And that was Judge Spaulding, an eminent free- 
soil man and republican of many years ! And what 
was the answer of his fratricidal south, to now " stay 
her fratricidal hands ? " He obtained his answer not 
many weeks after, from the brazen throats and blazing 
lips of Carolina cannon around Fort Sumpter, shaking 
the sea and land ; and followed by the bloodiest 
slaughter of human beings that this poor world has 
mourned in all the christian centuries ! 

Now this one word about " sweeping charges," and 
making no exceptions, or too few, so constantly and 
universally preferred against the abolitionists. We 
saw the very best men in church and state with no 
exception, in the three great political parties, sol- 
emnly sworn and pledged to observe all the compro- 
mises of the federal constitution, and religiously keep- 
ing the obligation. Every man they sent to congress 
was thus sworn. Through their agents they kept the 
oath ; or violating it they were guilty of legal and 
moral perjury. This the abolitionists saw, and hence 
their obedience to the demand issued from Patmos : 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaker 
in her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." 

And so where should we begin to make exceptions of 
such as remained in connection with the state, or in 
fellowship with the church fulfilling their obligations 
and requirements ? But we made exceptions. We 
made too many, not too few. Our charity covered 
not only a multitude of sins, but of sinners, too. 

And now the final consideration relates to ourselves, 
the abolitionists. And, as already intimated, it shall 
take the form of confession. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 495 

Through all these many pages, to patrons and read- 
ers, too many perhaps, no word has been spoken of 
differences or disagreements among ourselves, any 
more or less among leaders than others, men or 
women. For among the abolitionists, though there 
were women in goodly numbers on the platform of 
speech and in the field of work, we knew no male nor 
female, no high nor low. 

In the great apostacy of 1840, which resulted in the 
formation of what was known as new organization, one 
principal grievance, especially among the more ortho- 
dox sects, was what they termed the ''woman question." 
With that came the cry against our " no votingtheory," 
that we were opposed to all government among men 
and nations, as though there were or could be no gov- 
ernment but our government, no church but our 
church. With all these questions or quibbles, the 
abolitionists made short shrift and went on with their 
work. 

But being intensely human, abolitionists were in- 
tensely individual. And so they proved true what a 
great man once wrote, that for any considerable num- 
ber of persons to profess to think just alike on any 
important prbblem was simply to confess that they did 
not think at all. 

Abolitionists did think, and deeply too. And they 
felt as intensely as they thought. And so how could 
they but differ ? And there were disagreements that 
were not all reconciled before death sundered the par- 
ties to meet on earth no more. But they lived and 
died with their faces ever towards freedom, justice 
and love. A little more toleration, a very little more 
remembrance of our difference of temperament, of 
power of perception, of inherited tendencies, of possi- 
ble material, mental or moral infirmity in ourselves, 



49^ ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

for which we should be scarcely responsible in the 
least degree, might have preserved from many a dis- 
cordant note that seemed to ring on down to the gates 
of the grave. It was not anger, it was not hate. 
It was rather the result of intensity of love. At least 
it was so among some of our very truest, bravest, best, 
whose natures could but love, could never hate. 

"Alas ! they had been friends in youth ! 
But whispering tongues can poison truth : 
And constancy lives in realms above : 
And life is thorny, and youth is vain : 
And ' to be wroth -with those ive love 
Doth work like madness in the brain." 

To the last, there were differences of opinion. On 
the question when to cease our operations as an anti- 
slavery organization, there was much earnest debate. 
Some contended that our distinctive work was not ac- 
complished till the slave was made equal to the mas- 
ter at the ballot box, and in the government. And 
that this was all the more important since it was only 
by the slaves' valor on the battle-field, that the mas- 
ters had been defeated and their rebellion suppressed. 

As my last printed speech was on that subject, at 
the last anti-slavery anniversary I attended, it may be 
pardonable to present it here, as showing somewhat 
the temper and spirit of the discussion, as well as the 
nature of the subject then in hand. It is, however, 
only pardonable because from the beginning it has 
been my constant care to be myself as little obtrusive 
as the nature of my work would warrant consistently 
with exact truth and right. 

The anniversary exercises were held in the church 
of the Puritans, whose walls had often shuddered 
with the truly terrible eloquence of Dr. Cheever, from 
Sunday to Sunday, in rebuke and denunciation of the 
southern oppressor and his not less guilty abettor 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 497 

and accomplice in the north, in church and pulpit, as 
well as in the state. In the later years of the anti- 
slavery conflict, after he had been anathematized by 
the pulpit and almost driven from the pale of the 
church, only for his faithfulness to the cause of free- 
dom and humanity, for his orthodoxy, as well as pri- 
vate virtues were high as heaven above suspicion, he 
seemed to speak as by permission and power of Him 
who "touched Isaiah's lips with hallowed fire," and to 
superadd at times all the terrors of Patmos as well. 
No other voice penetrated the dark, deep recesses 
of the pro-slavery church and pulpit, the American 
Bible, missionary and tract societies, as did his. For 
to his faith and virtue, he added a perfect knowledge 
of all their works and ways. My resolution at that 
last anniversary, read as below : 

Resolved, That the objects of the American anti- 
slavery society, as announced in its constitution and 
declaration of sentiment, are, "the entire abolition of 
slavery in the United States," and " the elevation of 
" all persons of color, who possess the qualifications 
of others, to the enjoyment of the same privileges, 
and the exercise of the same prerogatives as others." 
And while we joyfully welcome, and will heartily co- 
operate with every new auxiliary in this vast field of 
action and effort, under whatever name, we can never 
lay down our own distinctive apostleship, until all 
those high purposes are fully accomplished. 

Though we had come to the last day and session of 
our meeting, I had not spoken before. We met at an 
early hour in the forenoon, and it was now nearly 
three in the afternoon, and we had not even taken a 
recess ; but I ventured to obtrude myself at that 
unseasonable hour, and was heard with most respect- 
ful attention in the following remarks : 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

Mr. President — This is the first time I have pre- 
sumed on the attention of this convention, and now I 
know full well it is too late to ask to be heard. But 
it seems to me something might be said which has not 
yet found utterance, and I will not be long. I quite 
agree with our excellent friends who have said that 
this society has been four years virtually dead, though 
it seems to me a most humiliating confession to make. 
And I think, that although they insist that this is no 
time for a funeral, still, if the society has been really 
four years dead, it is time it should be buried out of 
sight. It has certainly been inactive, though I trust 
it has only slept. And I have hoped that to-day a 
voice would be uttered that should be effective, say- 
ing, " Lazarus, come forth ! " 

Four years ago it was announced on our platform 
that slavery was dead — that our anti-slavery efforts 
were no longer needed — that General Scott was now our 
general agent in place of Mr. May, and that the Amer- 
ican army was now the American anti-slavery society. 
Well, that new anti-slavery society, under General 
Scott and others, prosecuted its conflict with such suc- 
cess and disaster as we now know. And the war 
dragged its slow length along, through nearly four 
dreary, desolating years. And slavery was still able 
to compete valiantly, if not successfully, with the 
mightiest armies that ever gathered in the field of 
bloody fight. For though we began with but seventy- 
five thousand, and they enrolled only for ninety days, 
before that period expired, we had summoned sud- 
denly a half-million more, for a three years' service. 
And in less than four years, our army had reached the 
stupendous muster-roll of more than two and a half 
millions, and nearly the half-million had already 
" fought their last battle, slept their last sleep ! " 



\i I'S OF ANTI-SI.AVERV APOSTLES. 499 

Last month, we were wakened early one Monday 
morning, to celebrate what we presumed to be the 
complete triumph of our northern hosts and vanquish- 
ing of every southern foe. Richmond had surren- 
dered, General Lee was our prisoner, and his forces 
with him, and we fancied that then, indeed, our work 
was done. There lay the monster slavery writhing in 
death agonies at our feet, his head not bruised only, 
but severed from his scaly form. And the whole free 
north burst into a joy unseen, unknown before since 
we were a nation. And that was a full week of jubi- 
lation. We thought the great red dragon was dead, 
our work done, and already reconstruction was under 
way. The president had made that last speech of his 
on the question, and the press of the country had 
given in its adhesion to his fatal doctrine. 

I well remember that on our Massachusetts Fast- 
day, our friend, Mr. Spaulding, of Salem, who ad- 
dressed us so earnestly this morning, invited me to 
occupy his pulpit. And let me say for him, that al- 
though pastor of one of the largest churches in that 
state, he has been so faithful as to have driven what is 
known as "the copper-head element," pretty much 
out of his congregation, and dared still to invite me 
to give the fast-day discourse. So, occupying the 
desk, I presumed the prerogative of minister and 
selected a text from the scriptures, and spoke of the 
goodness and forbearance of God to the nation. The 
text was this, from the Hebrew prophets : " What 
could I have done for my vineyard that I have not 
done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should 
bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ? " 

In the course of remark, I referred to that speech 
of President Lincoln, and said it appeared to me 
highly proper that we observe a day of fasting and 



500 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

prayer, for we had to treat with an evil spirit, which, 
though we fancied he was dead, and were celebrating 
our conquest and victory, was one that went not out 
after all, but by prayer and fasting. In the afternoon 
of that day, I went into the Salem Athenaeum and 
read every daily newspaper of New York and Boston 
there, and every one, I think, with no exception 
endorsed its doctrine. 

I had a lecture in a neighboring town that evening, 
and went to it with a heavy heart ; for I felt that it 
would be my duty to tell my audience that our joy 
was ill-timed, and would be vain ; that our rejoicing, 
I was sure, would be turned into mourning. For in 
our very hour of triumph and of victory, as we 
thought, we were not doing justice ; and were ready 
to reconstruct the government on the basis of white 
suffrage and citizenship, and that also disloyal ; reject- 
ing the bravery and loyalty that God had made the 
salvation of the country ! I went to my lecture, you 
may be sure with heavy, desponding heart. I told my 
audience it seemed to me we were lost. I said : you 
have all called me "blue, blue-black, and bilioits," and 
I know not what else, from the beginning of the war, 
but we are inevitably lost ! For God has visited us 
in judgment ; and in the last hour, when He seems to 
have left nothing undone that he could do for His 
vineyard, we still forget justice and judgment ; none 
calling for justice, nor any in the high places of gov- 
ernment pleading the cause of the poor, the very 
poorest of the poor ! It was a sad meeting ; well 
might it have been sad ; it continued till a late hour 
in the evening ; and a sadder audience. I never 
addressed, and a sadder heart in that joyous week, 
probably could not be found, than was mine. But in 
four and twenty hours from that time, God did appear, 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 501 

and in most mysterious manner, and showed that there 
was at least one thing more possible to be done in his 
vineyard, that had not been done. The solemn, 
mourning drapery which darkens this temple to-day, 
answers the question of our text ; "what more could 
have been done for my vineyard than I have done in 
it?" 

And so we closed our week of joy. I thought of 
the lines of Byron on Bonaparte, when he sung of 
his greatness and his fall : 

"O who would soar the solar height 
To set in such a starless night ! " 

Yes, Mr. President, that was a sad week for us. 
Our enemy was not slain ; for while we exulted over 
his fall, and triumphed in what we presumed his ever- 
lasting discomfiture, the quivering monster gath- 
ered enough vitality to swing around his envenomed 
tail, and in an instant to sting our almost idolized 
chief magistrate to death, before our very eyes ! 

I felt then, that there was more work for me to do ; 
and I have felt all through this meeting, that there 
was more work yet to be done by this grand old anti- 
slavery society, and I thought if we were indeed to 
cease from our good old apostleship, and our associa- 
tion was to be sacrificed here, it was fitting and well 
that we had this funeral drapery hanging here about 
us. But it seems to me that such a deed as our dis- 
bandment and dissolution would better become 
Ford's theatre than "the church of the Puritans," 
crape-darkened as it is for the dreadful tragedy which 
long yet must the nation mourn ! 

No, Mr. Chairman, no ; our work is not yet quite 
done ; at least mine is not done, nor will it be done 
till the blackest man has every right which I, myself 
enjoy. I cannot prove that I love my neighbor as 



502 ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTLES. 

myself till he stand by my side. And I honor my 
friend, Senator Wilson, for standing here to-day, and 
asserting- it as his life purpose, to labor in private and 
in public, for the accomplishment of that glorious 
end. And I dare tell you my friends, that when 
slavery is abolished, we shall all know it, for it will be 
as though " Death and Hell gave up the ghost ! " 

When we comprehend the malignity, yea, the 
" uncommon wrath " of the fell demon we have to 
face and overcome, and the terrible power and ten- 
acity of life he has acquired, we shall all realize that 
our warfare is no pastime, no children's play ; and 
that however freedmen's aid societies, and christian 
associations may operate in their fields, they will every 
one of them, need the old polar star to guide them in 
their new, untried and dangerous way. 

Charity of readers may be trusted to forgive the 
egotism of inserting this address, in part for its sad 
historical reminiscences, but more especially for the 
other reasons already intimated. In methods and 
measures, abolitionists, even of clearest vision, spirit- 
ual as well as mental, could not always see eye to eye; 
though ready to live and die in defense of their com- 
mon cause. But let the temper and spirit which 
breathe in this utterance, remarkable only that it was 
my last on our great subject ever given to the public 
through the press ; let this witness, that even in our 
differings, we were still in heart and spirit friends in 
all which that divine word can be made to mean. 

And now this work is done. Would, that it could 
be as truthfully said, ''well done." But nearly three 
score and fourteen, is too late in life to be engaged 
in such a service ; especially when it is remembered 
that authorship has been no part of all my public 
labors of three and forty years. 



ACTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY APOSTL1 . 503 

Truth in statement, justice and right towards all 
persons and parties interested in any way in these 
chronicles, have been constantly, carefully, kept in 
view, alike towards foe and friend. In soul, spirit, 
purpose, I have known no foes ; no sun has risen nor 
gone down on any wrath of mine. 

Most of my early comrades in the field-service, have 
gone, some of them long since gone to their well 
earned rest and reward. It is mine yet to live and 
guard watchfully 'their graves, and with tenderest 
affection to cherish their memory, and to shield it 
from any unjust reproach to the full extent of my 
power and to my latest breath. 

Of the great west and my many dear ones there 
living, or dead, I have scarcely spoken. And yet, 
nearly twenty of my autumns, and several winters 
were spent in most laborious service in the western 
states ; and many there became not only faithful 
co-workers, but life-long and devoted friends. A vol- 
ume much larger than this and greatly better every 
way would not suffice to do any justice to their 
exalted worth. But I live in unshaken faith and 
expectation of a glorious re-union awaiting us all. 

Nor with my present vision, could I desire sublimer 
felicity in such re-union, than to become more and 
more divinely endowed with celestial wisdom, knowl- 
edge and power ; and then, in the same spirit of love 
and good will to men, to all men, appealing ever only 
to the highest, divinest elements in the human nature, 
to continue our work and service till the whole race 
shall be restored and redeemed, and sin and death, 
the last great and only real enemies, shall together 
give up the ghost. 



I 



011 899 605 7 




